A Ninja By Any Other Name
by jacobk
Summary: Haruno Sakura was a happy kunoichi, until she found herself summoned to the land of Tristain by a group of strangely powerful nins calling themselves mages.  Thrust into a society she doesn't understand, she'll need all her wits about her to survive.
1. Prologue

AN: Prologue revised to give a little better sense of what Sakura is like back home

ooOoo

Sakura let out a sigh of relief as she released her hold on her chakra, allowing the mixture of poison and water she had been controlling to fall into the bowl by her side. Beneath her Kankuro's body seemed to relax, the lines of pain that had been etched into his face-which looked surprisingly young and vulnerable without his customary war paint-to relax as his body settled into something like sleep.

"He's cured, just like that?" Temari asked. The blonde had been hovering over Sakura's shoulder throughout the operation, and spoke up now as soon as it was clear that she wouldn't be putting her brother's life in danger by interrupting.

Sakura shook her head.

"Even I can't just remove all of the poison from the body so simply," she lied. "To fully cure him, I will need to make up an antidote. Unfortunately, I don't have what I need in my field kit."

"Then you will have whatever Suna can provide. Chiyo, show Sakura to the medical supplies." Temari ordered.

The old woman started to protest, but stilled herself when Temari fixed her with a heated glare. The blonde was extremely agitated, even to the point of releasing some killing intent. It was obvious that she would not be swayed on this point. Grumbling, Chiyo gestured to Sakura and led her to the medical storeroom and garden.

"You have the slug princess's fingerprints all over you, girl." Chiyo said, sneering, as soon as they were alone in the hallway. "Leaf poisons, leaf medics... it's enough to make an old woman suspicious."

"My teacher is the foremost medic-nin in the world. I'm fortunate that she chose to pass her wisdom on to me." Sakura said, smiling, pointedly not making a comment about Chiyo's lack of an apprentice. "As to the injury... perhaps I misunderstood the briefing, but I thought Kankuro was attacked by a puppet."

Puppetry, of course, was an art nearly exclusively practiced in the Village Hidden in the Sand. Unable to muster a reply, Chiyo could do nothing but glare at Sakura before turning once more to lead her towards through the hall. The pair soon arrived at the storeroom. Not well equipped by Konoha's standards, the garden nevertheless had everything that Sakura would need. Smiling, she stepped into the room and began gathering ingredients.

Sakura tossed the herbs she would need on a convenient lab table for later processing. She had just finished tossing the last ingredient onto the pile when Chiyo's hand shot out with surprising speed, capturing her wrist. Sakura could have responded physically, but openly murdering a respected elder really wasn't acceptable behavior between allied villages.

"Bloodwort leaf is a deadly poison, girl." Chiyo said, accusingly.

"It's the dose that makes the poison, elder." Sakura said, smiling brightly. "In this case, to counter such a widespread poison, we need something that will spread like the poison itself in order to neutralize the danger."

Neutralize, but not eliminate. The concoction Sakura would prepare would bind to the poison in Kankuro's body, allowing him to heal. Over time it would start to break down, once again endangering his life. Without a steady supply of the antidote, he would certainly die. Sakura was confident that Chiyo wouldn't be able to reproduce the antidote simply by watching her make it-there was a reason that Tsunade of the Sannin was a legendary figure, and Chiyo was a bitter old hermit.

When the "unfortunate side effect" of Kankuro's healing came out, Konoha would react with the appropriate level of dismay. Teaching the Sand how to reproduce the antidote would unfortunately be impossible due to the number of secret techniques involved, but of course Konoha would be happy to keep providing them with a steady supply... that was the kind of thing Konoha did for its allies.

Sakura hummed a cheerful tune to herself as she began putting the antidote together. She wasn't too worried about Chiyo figuring out the plan. If the woman had the intelligence to piece together the workings of Sakura's creation, she would have been able to put it together herself. Of course, even if she did figure out what was going on, there was little she could do. It was a simple fact that Kankuro's life was in danger, and the potion Sakura was putting together was necessary to allow him to live out the day.

Sakura knew that she couldn't match her sensei or her teammates in open combat. But in turning every situation to the benefit of the village, in creating deadly medicines even under the enemy's close scrutiny... there, she had learned well from the Hokage.

Sakura had a smile on her face and a song in heart when she finished putting together her "cure," and it was all she could do not to skip along next to Chiyo as the bitter old woman led her back to treat the Kazekage's brother. She was rather put out when there was a green flash of light and the world around her disappeared.

Sakura experienced a moment of complete sensory deprivation before the world exploded before her eyes in a kaleidoscope of colors, and she was subjected to the uncomfortable sensation of feeling her body taken apart, piece by piece, and pulled along in an unimaginably powerful current. After another timeless moment she felt herself being put back together again, and the world mercifully faded to black once more. Just as Sakura was beginning to relax, the process repeated itself.

Sakura soon lost count of how many times the entire series of events was repeated, and she was seriously starting to wonder if it was ever going to end when there was an explosion that slammed her flat on her back into the ground, momentarily stunning her.

When Sakura regained her senses, she found herself staring into the face of a girl around her age, with pink hair that looked much like her own. The odd sensation of looking into a mirror faded when she noticed the girl's brown eyes, which were focused on her with a look of irritation.

"Where am I? What just happened?" Sakura asked, raising a hand to massage her temple.

Instead of replying to her question, the girl leaned back and babbled something incomprehensible, before turning around to speak with somebody outside of Sakura's line of vision. Since she obviously wasn't going to learn anything by eavesdropping on people speaking a foreign language, Sakura levered herself up into a sitting position to take a look around.

Her first impression was that it was a beautiful mid-summer day, with a clear blue sky just beginning to darken as evening set in. Since it had been well into fall back in Konoha, this was a cause of some concern. Turning to her surroundings, she saw a lovely countryside, the grassland that she was sitting on disappearing in a large forest off to her right, and turning to rolling hills off to her left. A rather large fortification was built on top of the hill nearest her, although she couldn't see what it was defending from her vantage point.

Of more immediate concern to the kuniochi was the group of people gathered around her. They all seemed to be around her age, other than an older man who seemed to be in charge. All of them were dressed in a variety of outlandish colors and styles. Most of them were wearing cloaks, which just didn't make any sense at all. Only the strongest ninjas could wear such impractical clothing in the field, but no hidden village that she knew of could boast of a class of thirty prodigies around her age.

None of them seemed poised to attack her, so Sakura took a moment to think through her sudden arrival. She had been in one place, and was now clearly in another. She didn't think she was under a genjutsu-any technique that would last through the sensations she had suffered in transit... well, if she was up against a ninja capable of such things she was already dead. The only logical explanation for what had happened was some kind of human summoning, although the logic was undermined by the fact that human summoning was thought to be impossible.

Sakura had read up on summoning after learning that her teacher was considering allowing her to sign the Slug Contract. She didn't understand all of the theory behind summoning, but she knew that the summons were believed to hail from an entirely separate plane of existence, allowing them to appear wherever they were summoned. Human summoning was something of a Holy Grail for seal masters. A nation that mastered human summoning would be able to destroy its enemies at its leisure by summoning them into inescapable traps. Geniuses from the Niidaime to Jiraiya the Sage to the Yondaime had all taken a crack at it, and had all failed. The best anybody had done was to create a sort of glorified shunshin effect as with the scrolls used in the chuunin exam. Some of the scrolls speculated that the Hiraishin technique developed by the Yondaime had involved a sort of self-summoning, but he had taken the secret of that technique with him to the grave. And in any event, even the Yondaime had never truly been able to summon another person.

So for her to have been summoned to a new place was also impossible... and yet, here she was. Looking at the situation from a tactical perspective, Sakura had to admit that it was not good. She had a few of her knockout gas pellets with her, but she didn't think their effect would spread to the whole group in front of her. She could try taking a hostage-she didn't speak the language, but a kunai to the throat had a certain universal meaning-but the kind of people who could perform a human summoning were unlikely to be inconvenienced by a knife to the throat. For now, Sakura decided to watch and learn as best she could.

The conversation between the foreigners continued, but Sakura still could make little sense of it. It seemed that the group of younger people would occasionally taunt the girl who had first drawn Sakura's attention, drawing an angry response from her while she continued to engage in what looked like a contentious argument with the older man. Finally the argument seemed to end as the girl turned away from the older man in a huff and made her way back to Sakura.

Sakura held herself still as the girl said something formal-sounding while waving a stick at her. She was taken completely by surprise when the other girl leaned in and kissed her on the lips. Despite her earlier resolution to watch and wait, Sakura couldn't control her instinctive reaction to slap the other girl in the face. She did manage to refrain from putting any enhanced strength into the blow, not wanting to start an all out brawl with these unknown opponents.

"How dare you attack a maiden's virtue! Have you no shame?" Sakura asked, incensed.

The girl stumbled back, holding her cheek gingerly while glaring daggers at Sakura. When she had regained her balance, she said something to the kunoichi, again in that incomprehensible language.

Sakura was distracted from her frustration at her inability to communicate when she felt a sudden burning sensation in her hand. The pain was intense, but she had been through worse in counter-interrogation training. She kept her eyes on the girl who had kissed her the entire time, refusing to show any effects from her technique. The burning pain faded away, much more quickly than Sakura had expected.

"I hardly felt that! Don't you know any better torture techniques?" Sakura asked, unable to restrain herself from taunting the other girl.

"Don't be ridiculous." The girl replied, snorting. "That was the Contract Servant spell, not some sort of torture."

The two girls continued glaring at each other, before they both did a double take. "I can understand you!"

"Yes, the Summon Familiar spell is said to improve understanding between a mage and her familiar." The older man broke into their conversation. "It appears that you performed the spell correctly on your first try, Ms. Valliere, despite your troubles with the Summon Servent spell."

The petite mage flushed at his comment, although it was hard for Sakura to tell if she was blushing at the praise of her most recent "spell" or with anger at the reminder of earlier failures. Before she could say anything, the man had turned away from them to face the rest of the group.

"Well, let's go back to class, everyone." He directed them.

Without any further orders, the class all rose into the air as one and began to fly back to the castle together, leaving Sakura alone with the other pink-haired girl. She could only watch the group fly off in shock. The strongest wind element user she knew was Temari, and even she needed the help of her giant fan to catch the wind currents in order to fly. What was more, she hadn't felt so much as a stray breeze from her position. An entire group of people with such power and control... Sakura was suddenly very glad she hadn't made any aggressive moves.

After a moment the other girl began to walk back to the castle, gesturing for Sakura to follow. Sakura weighed her options briefly before following. With flight techniques like that at their disposal, she was never going to get away from these people just by running for it.

"Well, now that you're bonded to me as my familiar, we ought to get to know each other." The other girl said after a moment, breaking the silence that had built up between them. "My name is Louise de la Valliere. Who are you?"

"Haruno Sakura, chuunin of Konohagakure, ID number three five six seven one." Sakura replied automatically, before she processed what the other girl had said. "Wait, a 'familiar'?"

"Where do you come from, that you don't know this?" Louise asked rhetorically, before she sighed and explained. "All mages summon familiars to assist and serve them. When I performed the Summon Servant spell you showed up, so now you're my familiar."

"Don't I get any say in this?" Sakura asked. She wasn't sure whether to be horrified, outraged, or terrified, and for now had settled on a sort of artificial calm.

"Of course! Those marks on your hand... they're like a stamp that says you're my familiar." Louise said, very matter-of-fact.

For the first time Sakura looked down to her left hand at the source of her earlier discomfort. She was shocked to see a strange array of foreign seals that had been burned into her hand, apparently by the kiss Louise had given her. For a moment the forest around her disappeared, replaced with an image of the Forest of Death. She remembered when the horribly powerful missing-nin Orochimaru had placed a seal on her teammate simply by biting him. Over time that seal had warped Sasuke's personality, granting him power but also luring him away from his home village into the service of Orochimaru. To have what was to all appearances an improved and refined version of the technique used on her by such an innocent looking girl... it was just too much. Sakura stopped walking.

"Who are you people?" She asked. Even now, engrained training kept most of the utter terror that she was feeling out of her voice.

"We are students at the renowned Tristain Academy of Magic!" Louise spoke with pride. "The greatest school of magic in Halkeginia."

Sakura tried to ignore the implications of the existence of a school full of such powerful students. "And where are we? How do we get to Fire Country from here?"

"We are in Tristain, of course." Louise replied, then paused to think. "I've never heard of this Fire Country."

"So there's no way for me to go home?" Sakura asked.

"No, of course not, you're my familiar now." Louis said, sounding surprised at the idea, before giving Sakura a sympathetic look. "Don't worry, as long as you serve me faithfully and take care of me, I will take care of you too. The master-familiar bond is a two way street, you know."

"Couldn't you, maybe, just send me back and get a different familiar?" Sakura asked, trying her best to negotiate a way home without provoking the other girl. She guessed from the reaction of Louise's classmates that her summoning had not been particularly impressive. "It looked like you were hoping for something else..."

"No, it's impossible. The familiar bond is for life. I have no idea where you came from and the Summon Servant spell is strictly a one-way spell." Louise replied, looking at her evenly. "Even if it weren't... the only way Summon Servant can be used again is if the familiar you first summoned has died."

"I see." Sakura said, subdued.

Nothing more was said as the pair returned to the castle. Louise seemed uninterested in Sakura's background, and Sakura felt she had learned enough about her new master. Apparently the mage was not the type that would kill her out of hand in hopes of summoning a superior familiar-or at least not the type who would do so without her teacher's approval, as Sakura thought she had an idea of what the earlier argument with the old man had been about. However, it was pretty clear what would happen if Sakura proved to be a useless familiar.

Sakura did her best to calm herself as they reached the end of their walk. She reminder herself that the situation could have been much worse, and certainly would have been much worse if any of the S-rank ninja hostile to Konoha had mastered a human summoning technique. These mages didn't seem interested in torturing her for information, and didn't really seem to care about her at all except for her position as Louise's familiar. Surrounded by more powerful people her own age, desperate to prove herself useful... it was almost enough to make her nostalgic. 


	2. Chapter One

Louise's room was large, especially considering that it was located in a fortified building. A four poster bed was placed facing the window on the far wall, while the other side of the room was dominated by a large wardrobe, next to which was a writing desk. All of the furniture was decorated with beautiful carvings, and looked to be made of expensive materials. Overall, the effect was impressive.

When Sakura said as much, Louise drew herself up into what was quickly becoming a familiar, haughty stance. "Of course the room is impressive, I am after all the daughter of the Valliere family."

Louise paused, waiting for a reaction. When none was forthcoming she sighed before continuing her lecture.

"I almost forgot, you are from so far out in the middle of nowhere that you don't know how anything works. There is a saying, 'nobles make magic, and magic makes the noble.' My family is known for producing some of the strongest magicians in Tristain." Louise said, proudly. "My mother is probably the strongest witch outside of the royal family."

Louise continued on in this vein for some time, explaining the structure of Tristainian society. Sakura did her best to take it all in. It seemed that, to put it simply, magicians in Tristain, and in all of Halkeginia, occupied the position of both Hokage and Daimyo. Mages ruled over the entire country, while those without magic were commoners, consigned into the service of the mages. Sakura had sometimes wished that Konoha had such power when she was forced to deal with asinine requests from the Daimyo as the Hokage's assistant, but she couldn't help but remember the terror that had been sown in Rice Country under Orochimaru's rule. An entire country-and entire continent-under such a system for centuries was something she could hardly imagine.

When Louise finally finished speaking, Sakura was able to ask the question that had been bothering her since learning of her new position. "So mages are important, and familiars are important to mages, but what does a familiar do, exactly?"

"Firstly, a familiar is able to grant its master an enhancement in vision and hearing; what the familiar sees, the master can also see." Louise said, then appeared to break off from a prepared speech. "It seems like that doesn't work with you, I can't see anything.

"Anyway," she continued, "a familiar will also retrieve items that its master desires, like reagents."

"Reagents?" Sakura asked. Even with the translation technique active, she didn't understand the term.

"Catalysts used when casting certain spells, like sulfur or moss." Louise sighed. "But you don't even know what kind of reagents are out there, so you probably won't ever find me stuff like that.

"The third thing," Louise continued, "and this is most important of all... A familiar exists to protect its master! The task of protecting them from any and all enemies is a duty of the highest priority! But-"

"You have enemies that would attack you, even here at school?" Sakura interrupted, glancing at the door in alarm.

"No, no. Well, maybe Kirche." Louise said. "The red haired girl with the dark skin. Watch out for her."

Sakura cast her memory back to the time of the clearing, trying to remember any students who had stood out. After a moment it came to her. "Oh, the one with those ridiculous udders on her chest?"

"Exactly! I don't know how she even walks with those things." Louise exclaimed. The two pink haired girls shared their first moment of camaraderie in their shared anger at the unfair distribution of nature's bounty. After a moment Louise snapped out of it, drawing back again into her lecturing pose.

"Kirche isn't a Tristainian, she's a noble from Germania. My house, Valliere, has estates on Germania's borders, so we're the first on the field against Germanians the moment any war starts. Even worse, right opposite to us on that border is Kirche's birthplace." Louise ground her teeth together. "So basically, the Zerbst family is our sworn enemy."

"And you go to school together?" Sakura asked, amazed. The chuunin exam had brought students from nominally allied nations together in a competition that barely lasted a month, and the results had been brutal. She couldn't imagine going to school with enemy nins. Louise was in her second year of such education, and must have honed all of her instincts to a razor's edge to be so relaxed in an environment filled with enemies.

"Yes, but don't worry, I can handle her. I'm only going to make you do things I'm fairly certain you can do: laundry, cleaning, and other miscellaneous tasks." Louise said, smiling reassuringly at Sakura.

Sakura understood the message with crystal clarity. She would be given useless tasks for however long it took for Louise to convince her teachers that she was saddled with a useless familiar, and deserved another try at the Summon Servant spell... Well, there was no need to dwell on it. She actually appreciated that the mage was taking the trouble to give her makework tasks to do in order to take her mind off of her fate, but she was no less determined to prove herself useful as quickly as she could.

Sakura was brought out of her thoughts as a blouse hit her in the face. "Hey!"

"All this talking has made me sleepy." Louise explained as she finished disrobing. "You can clean those clothes tomorrow."

"But where am I going to sleep?" Sakura asked. Wordlessly, her master pointed to the floor next to the bed. Sakura couldn't fully repress the eyebrow twitch she developed in the face of such treatment.

"Well, it's not like I thought I would be having another person sleeping in my quarters." Louise said, somewhat defensively. "I wish I had summoned something cool like a gryphon or a dragon, they wouldn't need a bed..."

Suitably chastised at the reminder of her position, Sakura held back her immediate response. At least she had been summoned while she was in the middle of a mission, so she was carrying a reasonable amount of supplies. She unsealed her bedroll from its storage scroll and began preparing for bed, when she suddenly found her master at her arm.

"What? Where were you keeping that?" Louise asked, undisguised interest in her voice.

"It was just in a storage seal." Sakura answered, showing her the scroll and then indicating the runes on her left hand. "It's nothing like as complicated as the seal you put on me, but it helps me pack light for missions. What do you use to carry bulky items?"

"Servants." Louise sniffed, apparently losing interest in the topic.

As she prepared for sleep, Sakura pondered the implications of that final conversation. It seemed that high powered nins in comfortable positions turned up their noses at simple "utility" techniques-she couldn't help but wonder what other simple techniques they might overlook. She didn't think she'd ever want to be in a straight up fight with any of these magicians, but then, she hadn't spent all of her time as a ninja just learning how to win straight up fights...

It was with such hopeful thoughts in mind that Sakura drifted off to sleep.

ooOoo

Sakura woke up four hours later, ready to take her turn on watch. Shortly after she shook off the haze of sleep she realized that she was sleeping indoors, and then all of her memories of the previous day came back to her. Laying back in bed, Sakura pulled out a kunai and began twirling it around her fingers in an old nervous habit that sometimes helped her to think. It seemed particularly effective this morning, as she immediately felt more awake and alert.

She very badly wanted to leap out of the castle and start running back to Konoha. Of course, she had no idea which way to go to get to Konoha, but that would be something she could sort out on the way, if running were an option. But it wasn't. If she ran, she would only be bringing trouble back home. As long as she lived, Louise could never summon another familiar. The girl was ambitious and apparently politically powerful, and she would never stand to let her familiar disappear.

She could always kill Louise before making her escape, but that hardly seemed likely to improve the situation. Although she would no longer have one person who would dedicate her life to Sakura's death, she had a feeling that the death of a mage at the hands of a commoner was something that the school would react to with great vengeance. If she were able to dispose of the body perfectly it might be written off as a simple disappearance, but Sakura didn't want to take that chance. And of course that entire line of thought assumed that she was able to her master. Sakura glanced over at the bed, from which she could her soft snores coming from the sleeping Louise.

The girl's behavior so far had shown a complete disregard for the threat that Sakura posed to her life. Louise was either blindingly naive, or overwhelmingly confident in her own abilities. Considering the environment she was learning in, Sakura wasn't prepared to bet her life on Louise's naivete. With the level of power all of her peers had shown... it would be like trying to attack Kakashi in his sleep, an attempt that could only lead to grief for the attacking party. And that wasn't even accounting for the effect of the seal on Sakura's hand.

No, Sakura decided as she got out of bed, there would be no murder this morning, which meant that she should start doing her laundry. Standing up and putting her kunai away, she set out to do just that, never noticing the fading glow of the runes on her left hand.

ooOoo

On her return from her errands, Sakura was somewhat surprised to see that Louise was still asleep. Checking the position of the sun, she figured that it must almost be time for breakfast, and so set about the task of waking her master.

Waking high level nin safely was always a tricky business. Sakura eventually decided to use one of the extra coat hangers to poke Louise on the shoulder from what she hoped would be a safe distance. It took a few pokes before the girl mumbled and began to stir, slapping at the coat hanger in annoyance.

"Wh-What? What's going on?" Louise asked, blinking sleep out of her eyes.

Although her master appeared to be quite thoroughly disoriented, Sakura was not fooled. Feigning weakness to provoke an opponent into a rash attack was one of the oldest tricks in the book. Obviously Louise had been forbidden from proactively disposing of her familiar, but if she could present it as a case of self defense, there would be nothing for it but to try to summon a better familiar next time. Sakura hadn't thought her master capable of such things, but then Kakashi had always said that she had trouble seeing underneath the underneath.

"It's nearly time for breakfast, master." She replied, voice level.

"Huh? Oh... wait, who are you?" Louise asked, confusion written all over her face. Sakura had to admit, it was a convincing act.

"Haruno Sakura." Sakura was careful to keep her amusement out of her voice.

"Oh, the familiar. That's right, I summoned you yesterday, didn't I?" Louise still appeared not to have fully awaken.

"Correct." Sakura replied. "Your laundry has been cleaned and is put away in the wardrobe."

Louise requested her underwear and clothing, which Sakura provided. When her master had finished putting on her undergarments, she directed another order at Sakura.

"Dress you?" Sakura couldn't keep the incredulity out of her voice.

"You must not know because you're a commoner, but nobles will not dress themselves if a servant is available." Louise's voice was firm, and Sakura moved to comply.

Sakura was of course required to move well into her master's personal space in order to help her dress. As she was putting on her blouse, Louise even turned her back on her servant, practically daring her to strike. Sakura couldn't help but stare at the space between her third and fourth vertebrae. She could form a chakra scalpel in an instant, and at this range the attack would take no time at all. She shook herself out of it as Louise finished donning the blouse and turned to allow Sakura to button it up. In this situation, she couldn't afford to act rashly.

Once Louise had been dressed, Sakura made the request that had been on her mind all morning. "Since I finished your laundry already, may I take the rest of the day to explore the countryside? I may be able to find some of those reagents you mentioned yesterday."

Louise looked at her blankly for a moment, before nodding. "Very well. Be sure to return before the evening meal is over. I won't have the others thinking my familiar has abandoned me."

Sakura expressed her appreciation and made her way out of the castle, leaving Louise to her pre-breakfast preparations.

ooOoo

Half an hour later Sakura jumped down from a tree near the outskirts of Tristain's capital. Louise had told her that the city was three hours away from the Academy on horseback. Sakura could only assume that her master set a pretty leisurely pace when she rode into town.

Her first impression of the sprawling city was that it reminded her of the capital of Fire Country. The white cobblestone streets were packed with throngs of people and with merchants plying their wares. Overall it gave an impression of being a prosperous city in a prosperous country, which fit Louise's description to a T.

One difference from her last diplomatic mission to visit the Daimyo was that no honor guard waited to receive her at the gate. Not that she looked like she deserved one. Dressed in plain traveling clothes, Sakura looked every inch the commoner. Even her distinctive hair was tucked under a plain scarf. Once she made her way into the city, she would simply vanish into the crowds. Of course, this was by design.

After all, she had learned very early on in the Academy that it's a bad idea to stand out when you're scouting out the target of a burglary.

ooOoo

Two hours after entering the city, Sakura was seated on a bench in one of Tristania's busy market squares, cradling a bag full of rocks under her cloak, and waiting. She was currently in part of the city that had been left to commoners, although it was generally populated by the more upscale sorts of commoners. The mages' section of the city had been surprisingly easy to pick out-all of the mages favored the same sort of outfits as she had seen on the students the previous day-and commoners entered at their peril. Sakura had seen several commoners disciplined by mages for offenses against courtesy that seemed to her to have been minor at best.

The most striking thing was that all of the mages had performed their techniques with absolutely perfect control. Sakura liked to think of her own chakra control as perfect, but she knew that it was in reality only very very good. She, like every ninja she knew, lost a little bit of chakra as a byproduct of performing any ninjutsu. The mages of Tristain, however, performed their techniques with little effort and no chakra loss whatsoever. Even when she was nearby when a "spell" was performed, she had been completely unable to sense the chakra being used by a mage. This, along with all of the other impossible things she had seen done, was more than enough to keep Sakura confined to the commoners' part of town.

She took some comfort from the fact that the nobles largely limited themselves to humiliation and minor physical torment. She had not seen anyone publicly executed or tortured, although of course that could simply mean that such things were handled discreetly in Tristain. With her inability to sense their techniques it was hard to rule anything out.

Sakura's thoughts were diverted from their dark path when she saw just the man she had been waiting for. A prosperous merchant had completed his shopping and was walking across the market square, groceries in hand. She had seen him put away his money bag on his right hip, and it looked like it was still pretty full even after his purchases. Sakura nonchalantly rose to her feet and made her way across the square.

She did not make eye contact with her mark, but she was careful not to pointedly look away from him either. Rather, her eyes roamed naturally around the square as she allowed the crowd to carry her past the man, brushing up against his cloak for the briefest instant. Of course, for a trained kunoichi, an instant was all that she needed to switch her bag of rocks for his bag of gold. The difference in weight was little enough that the man was unlikely to notice the theft until the next time he needed to spend his money.

That mission completed, Sakura began her next mission by seeking out a nearby member of the city watch. This served two purposes. First, should her mark discover that he had been robbed, the sweet little girl already talking to a law enforcement officer was unlikely to be a subject of suspicion. Second, she really did need to ask for directions.

"Excuse me, officer?" She asked.

"Yeah?" The watchman, who was hardly an officer of any sort, nevertheless puffed himself up as he turned to face Sakura. "What do you need, little girl?"

"Well," Sakura forced down her irritation and focused on looking as cute and harmless as possible, "my master sent me to market to buy some reagents, but I don't know where to go..."

"Feh, isn't that just like a noble," the watchman commented, shaking his head. "You just need to go to one of those Academy supply stores, just look for the mortar and pestle on the sign. I think there's one around that corner."

Sakura followed the officer's directions and soon found herself on a broad market street. The stores in this area looked well cared for, with sparkling clean windows and fresh coats of paint. The whole area had a sort of aura of classiness that Sakura associated with Konoha's upscale market district. Sure enough, about halfway down the street she came across a building bearing a sign with the mortar and pestle.

Entering the apothecary, Sakura found herself in another world. The large store was crammed full of shelves carrying every imaginable mystical ingredient. Shelves full of powdered metals butted up against shelves full of mysterious liquids, which themselves adjoined shelves covered in glass jars full of herbs. Sakura thought she recognized some of the plants, but otherwise she was completely lost. Fortunately, the store owner was an older man who looked particularly vulnerable to her puppy dog eyes technique.

"Excuse me, sir," Sakura clasped her hands together as she approached the counter, the very picture of helpless innocence. "My master sent me here to buy some reagents, but I didn't write them down and now I don't know what to do! Can you help me, please?"

"Well, that's easily remedied." The shopkeeper replied, gracing her with a grandfatherly smile. "I may not be a mage, but I know my reagents. If you know what spell your master is trying to cast, I can tell you what you need to buy."

"Oh, thank you so much!" Sakura exclaimed, smiling at the man in gratitude... before her face fell. "But I don't remember the spell! Maybe you could tell me about some of the reagents to help jog my memory?"

As it turned out, the man was happy to tell her about his wares, and in fact was happy to spend nearly an hour educating Sakura about the different reagents, their effects when used in combination, what sort of spells they were good for, and of course, their market price. They were interrupted a few times by customers looking to make purchases, but he was always happy to restart his lecture from where he left off.

When the storekeeper finally ran out of things to say, Sakura opened her money bag to examine its contents before plastering a look of concern on her face. "Oh no! I think my master wanted me to buy the tears from the water spirit, but those cost way more than the amount of gold that she gave me. I'll have to go back to her and see what she wants to do!"

Sakura thanked the storekeeper for his time and made her way out of the store with an invitation to return any time she needed to get her shopping done. She pulled out a scroll as soon as she was out of sight of the shop and wrote down a list of reagents, ordered by market value. Her memory was good, but mission critical information was too important to trust to memory alone.

Mission objective achieved, she made her way back to a restaurant that she had spotted earlier, planning to buy a meal with her purloined gold. She had eaten some ration bars on the way to town, but there was nothing like a freshly cooked meal to get her ready to face the rest of the day.

ooOoo

Sakura was feeling a little frustrated as she bade farewell to the eighth apothecary she had visited after lunch. All of the storekeepers had been very friendly, albeit disappointed to discover that she hadn't brought enough money with her to buy the reagents her master wanted. However, she hadn't been able to get a feel for their security systems at all. She hadn't seen any security seals or felt the faint chakra pulse generated by passive notification wards at any of the stores. Unfortunately, with the perfect chakra utilization that was apparently common to this world, there was no guarantee that wards would generate any chakra for her to feel. She was starting to seriously consider visiting the apothecaries on the nobles' side of town, just to see the type of security setup used by what was presumably a higher value, higher security target.

Before she had worked up the nerve to take such a risk, her eye was caught by an apothecary's sign hung up in an alleyway that she had been walking past. The alleyway was clean and well lit, but was narrow enough that it would never be mistaken for a major shopping destination. Intrigued, Sakura made her way towards her tenth apothecary of the day.

Inside, the store looked much like the others that she had visited over the course of the day, other than the appearance of the storekeeper. Like the other storekeepers, he looked to be in late middle age, with a generous sprinkling of grey in his chestnut colored hair. Unlike the other storekeepers, he was built like a bear. Even sitting behind the counter he towered over Sakura, and in breadth he made three of her. He had the solid look of a man who used to be quite fit, but had let himself go somewhat with retirement from active life.

The storekeeper also differed from the others in that did not smile at Sakura when she inquired as to the price of bitterroot extract. In fact, he scowled at her as he replied. "You don't have the look of a noble about you, girl."

Sakura did her best to blush demurely. "I'm afraid I'm not a noble, sir, I've simply been sent on an errand by my master-"

"If you're not a noble, I can't sell to you." The man interrupted. "The last time I sold a reagent to a commoner the fool used it to poison his wife. Those Tristainian dogs in the city watch tried to blame me for the whole thing."

Sakura didn't say anything for a moment as she tried to think of a way to turn the situation to her advantage. Taking her silence for sympathy, the storekeeper continued talking. "It's easy enough for those cowards to threaten an old shopkeeper. Tsch, I would have liked to see them on the battlefield back in the war. Like as not the only reason any of them would live would be that they would run away too quickly."

"Oh my," Sakura said, genuinely surprised to hear such openly spoken anti-Tristainian sentiment. "You were in the army?"

"In the army?" The man asked, incredulous. "I was the greatest swordsman in the greatest company in the second greatest division of the Germanian army! I wager there's still songs being sung back in the Germanian taverns of the exploits of Osmond the Blade!"

"Really?" Sakura asked, properly awed.

"Of course." Osmond reassured her. "There's the tale of Osmond the Blade and the Vineyard of Gallia! Osmond the Blade and the Pit Scorpions of the Holy Land! Osmond the Blade and the Treachery of Romalia! Many songs were sung of Osmond the Blade."

"But then," Sakura asked, hesitantly, "why are you here in Tristania?"

"Ah, well," Osmond muttered, slightly shamefaced, before regaining his determined expression. "They forced me out of the army. Said I was 'undermining authority' and 'harming unit cohesion.' As if it's my fault that they didn't have a man with the steel in his spine needed to lead Osmond the Blade!"

Osmond relaxed from the almost military posture he had assumed during his speech, and shrugged. "After that, well, Germania is a great country, but a poor one. I came here to Tristania so I could sell my wares to the rich. And the brats attending the Academy are some of the richest in Tristain."

Osmond paused, before continuing to unburden himself. "Mind, I don't hold with magic much myself. Osmond the Blade never needed more than honest Germanian steel in his hands to defend his home and country! But if that's what these Tristainians want to learn, and this is what they're willing to buy, well, it's a living."

"So," Sakura asked, bringing the conversation back on topic, "there's no way you can sell me any reagents at all?"

"Ah, you're a sweet girl, to listen to an old man ramble on, but I'm afraid I can't." Osmond said, sighing. "Send your master to me, though, and she'll find no better prices and no better quality reagents than here, in the store of Osmond the Blade!"

Sakura bade the big man farewell, and made her way out of her store. She mentally marked one more mission objective complete as she headed out of town.

Sakura made herself walk far enough into the forest to be invisible from the city walls before she allowed herself a subdued fist-pump and a softly spoken "Shannaro!"

ooOoo

Despite the busy nature of her trip to the capital, Sakura returned to the Academy shortly after the evening meal had begun. Of course, familiars were not allowed in the dining hall, so she was left to cool her heels in the hallway nearby. She was leaning against the wall and mentally calculating likely watch shifts and travel time when she was discovered by one of the waitstaff.

"Ms. Valliere, is there anything-oh, I'm sorry!" The maid said, catching herself. "With that hair... you must be the commoner Ms. Valliere summoned?"

Sakura nodded, warily. It seemed unlikely that the students would involve the servants in their power plays, but as Shinobi Rule 34 said, the most dangerous kunai is the one you never see.

"Yes, it was quite the talk of the school, Ms. Valliere summoning a commoner." The maid paused, then looked around the hallway and frowned. "Of course, commoners aren't allowed in the Alviss Dining Hall. Well, we commoners have to stick together-would you like to join me in the kitchens for dinner?"

Hard experience had taught Sakura never to turn down a free meal, so she nodded again and followed the maid into a busy kitchen. An endless row of cooking ranges were producing a massive variety of food, tended to by a corps of harried looking cherfs. Nearby, another row of enormous cookpots simmered, releasing a medley of savory smells into the air. Off in the corner was a small servant's dining area, composed of a few rough hewn tables and accompanying benches.

The maid, Siesta, served up a simple but hearty stew for the both of them and then settled down for a chat. She soon proved to be a veritable font of information about the school, although at times Sakura found her explanations to be frustratingly oblique. Still, Sakura felt that she was able to put together a decent picture of which students were sleeping with each other, and which students wanted to assassinate each other-or she would, once she could put names with faces. Siesta described such a tangled web of relationships, however, that Sakura resolved not to take any dramatic action without her master's approval.

Siesta was also able to explain some things that had been bothering Sakura. It seemed that students were officially forbidden from attacking each other with magic, and this rule was actually enforced in the hallways and common areas of the castle. Earlier Sakura had been surprised, though grateful, that she hadn't had to dodge any lethal techniques as she made her way through the castle, and she was pleased to have an explanation for such a thing. Of course, in the classroom the students were expected to use magic, and there was plenty of room for spells to go awry, with potentially disastrous results.

Apparently Sakura's own master was notorious for such "accidents," and had even sent a teacher to the medical wing on that very day. Sakura was surprised at the feeling of pride that she felt on hearing that news, pride in somebody that she had just met the day before. On reflection, she thought it was reasonable to grow attached to the only person in this strange new world who was at least nominally on her side. Her own social standing here depended almost entirely on her master, so it was just as well that Louise appeared to be both powerful and ruthless.

While Sakura and Siesta continued talking, Sakura noticed that the maid was starting to fidget, as the activity in the kitchen began to pick up. Looking around, Sakura saw that the kitchen staff was engaged in intense preparation of a wide variety of deserts.

"Please, don't let me keep you from your duties." Sakura said, gesturing at the activity taking place in the room. "In fact, in exchange for this meal, why don't you let me help out?"

"Oh, could you?" Siesta appeared sincerely grateful. "That would make my job ever so much easier."

Sakura was soon fitted out with a maid's outfit and given a dessert tray to carry. Siesta described each of the confections to her in loving detail, leading Sakura to suspect that the maid may have sampled some of the nobles' food in the past. The bulk of the tray was filled with slices of rich chocolate cake that was apparently a Tristainian specialty, while a small corner had been set aside for a group of rather extravagant pastries from Germania. The remainder of the tray was taken up by a Gallian treat made out of custard that had been glazed through the application of rather intense heat to the top of the dish.

Sakura obediently followed Siesta out into the dining hall, bearing the weight of the tray rather easily as the maid served each noble in turn. In her maid's outfit, with her distinctive hair tucked under a matching black scarf, Sakura may as well have been invisible. Siesta took each noble's request for dessert in turn, and usually referred to them by name-allowing Sakura to put faces together with the stories the maid had shared with her earlier.

She was surprised to see Kirche von Zerbst sitting next to Louise. While the teachers would apparently enforce the prohibitions against violence in public, the teachers were seated rather far away. Louise was apparently quite confident in her own ability to detect poisons or deflect a sudden attack. Sakura appraised her master's rival warily as she approached, but could detect no signs of hostility. She forced herself to relax before approaching the Germanian girl-if her master felt she had things well in hand, Sakura did not want to initiate any kind of hostilities.

For her part, Kirche hardly looked up at Sakura as she snatched one of the Germanian pastries from the dessert tray before Siesta even had a chance to offer. The redhead alternated between taking bites out of her dessert and bickering with Louise, not allowing either activity to interfere with the other.

The rest of the dessert service was uneventful, although Sakura hardly had time to change back to her normal clothing and resume her post outside of the dining hall before the nobles had finished eating. Her master was one of the first to leave, and seemed to be looking around the hallway for somebody. Smiling, Sakura stepped forward into Louise's line of sight.

"Master." She said, inclining her head slightly. "I did not find any reagents today, but I saw some promising signs and believe I will be able to acquire some soon."

"Very well." Louise had drawn back in surprise when Sakura addressed her, but relaxed as she began speaking. "We shall-"

"Well, well, well." Louise was interrupted by the supremely confident voice of her rival. "I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes."

"Zerbst." Louise growled out, a dangerous edge to her voice.

"The same pink hair, the same..." Kirche glanced down at her chest, and back to Louise. "Assets. Did one of your cousins take pity on you and agree to pretend to be your familiar?"

"Don't be a fool, Kirche. You saw her appear when I summoned her, just like everybody else." Louise replied. "Besides, in the Valliere family all of our cousins are well known and acknowledged... not like you 'passionate' Zerbsts!"

"How dare you-" Kirche exclaimed, advancing towards Louise before she was interrupted by the imposition of her other pink haired target.

"Please do not approach my master like that." Sakura spoke, voice even. She wasn't sure why she had decided to interpose herself between the two mages, it was as if some instinct had prompted her to move as soon as Louise appeared to be under threat. She supposed if she was to be useful, she would at least have to pretend to play the bodyguard role expected of a familiar. So she stood firm, right hand held up to ward off the taller girl, and left hand tucked into her shirt, grasping a hidden kunai.

"Tsch, you're a strange one, commoner." Kirche smiled down at her. It was not a friendly smile. "To stand between two mages, you must be very brave... or very foolish.

Sakura wasn't sure herself which statement would apply to her at the moment. As soon as she had taken her position, she had felt the familiar adrenalin rush that flooded her body at the prospect of combat. Here, facing off against the power of a Halkeginian mage, the effect was even stronger than usual. Her body felt unnaturally light, and she could almost hear a voice in her head detailing the six different killing attacks and three different disabling attacks available to her, and urging her to simply pick an attack and triumph over her opponent. She wrestled that voice down with the wisdom of experience. Sometimes you were simply outclassed-she remembered countless fights against her jounin-sensei and the Hokage-sometimes every opening you thought you saw was truly a trap. Against a dangerous opponent like Zerbst, overconfidence would do nothing but guarantee a quick and inglorious death.

Oddly, Sakura was torn between feeling relief and feeling disappointment when Louise defused the situation.

"Familiar, back off. There's no need to protect me from Zerbst." Louise ordered, placing a hand on Sakura's shoulder. Sakura obeyed, stepping back to stand behind her master and bringing both hands out in the open in a relaxed posture. She had to focus to stop them from trembling as she came down from her combat high.

The interruption had also given Kirche time to recover her cool, and the Germanian directed another cutting smile towards Louise. "Insult my family all you like, Zero... at least I know my parents are proud of me."

Louise's face went absolutely white with rage, and Sakura stepped back, not wanting to get any blood on one of her few sets of civilian clothing. However, rather than respond verbally or escalate into an actual assault, her master simply turned on her heel and stalked away, every line on her body radiating anger. Sakura followed at a safe distance, and the two made their way silently back to Louise's quarters.

Louise didn't say a word to Sakura other than to list off the chores she expected to be accomplished the next day. Respecting her master's mood, Sakura did not try to initiate a conversation. Louise spent some time working on what appeared to be an Academy assignment, and both girls retired early for the night.

ooOoo

This time Sakura woke only two hours after falling asleep, jolted into awareness by the technique she had performed before bed. Rising silently, she swiftly dressed herself in her professional outfit-an entirely black, non-reflective suit that covered her from head to toe, providing concealment as well as a limited amount of protection.

Making her way to the window, Sakura saw no activity in the courtyard below. It looked like everybody else was settled down for the night, which meant that it was time for a ninja to get to work. 


	3. Chapter Two

AN: You know how sometimes your cat brings a dead bird into your house and drops it at your feet, then stares at you, waiting for you to acknowledge its hunting prowess? Yeah...

ooOoo

Two crescent moons shone down on Tristain Academy, gently illuminating the ground below. Sakura crouched against the side of the tower under her master's window, a dark shadow hidden within a dark shadow, and glared balefully up at the sky. Any plans she had had of walking to Konoha had been laid to rest by the appearance of a second moon overhead. The confirmation that she was on another world had also crushed her idle fantasies of Konoha shinobi charging over the horizon to her rescue. She was on her own, and if she ever wanted to get home she was first going to have to find a way to survive. Later, once she proved herself useful to her master, she could see about researching a way back.

The two moons together provided about enough light for the average person to see the hand in front of their face. Of course, Sakura was far from an average person, but even she was hard pressed to make out much detail from her perch just outside of Louise's window. She could tell that nobody was moving about with torches down below, leaving her with a fairly free run of the area in her darkened clothing. She would just have to evade any posted guards on her way out.

For the moment, though, she waited, listening to the "snoring" emanating from her master's room. She had now been outside for a few minutes and Louise hadn't done anything to bring her back inside. When she was working with Kakashi, that kind of thing was tantamount to a signed permission slip. Finally, she decided that she had waited long enough, and began running down the side of the tower wall, using the minimum amount of chakra necessary to secure her footing.

Sakura moved confidently through the outer courtyards, slipping from shadow to shadow while making no more noise than an owl in flight. She didn't seriously think she was fooling any mages that the Academy had left on watch, but getting sloppy just because you were outmatched was a bad habit, and both of her teachers had very firm stances on bad habits. Even if the real reason she was allowed to leave was because of the general benign neglect of familiars, that was no reason not to practice sneaking around.

She reached the outer wall without any alarm being raised, and carefully crawled up the wall, keeping inside of the shadow cast by one of the castle towers. She flattened herself against the wall just underneath the top, and waited for the guard to go by. She might be able to just speed past unnoticed in the dark, but it would be better to time the guard patrols.

After half an hour, Sakura started to consider the possibility that the guards didn't bother patrolling the walls. After an hour of waiting, it was the only possible conclusion. Apparently the nobility of Tristainia weren't worried about anybody sneaking in to their academy.

Sakura shook her head as she slipped over the wall and into the surrounding forest. No matter how powerful the mages might be, that was lousy security. Sakura had had it drilled into her over and over again that people who overlooked the little things eventually started to overlook the important things as well. It wasn't really her place to comment on the school's security as a whole, but she made a mental note to discuss the issue with Louise when she had a chance. She wouldn't want her master to be caught out by focusing solely on threats from fellow students, trusting the school to handle threats from the outside.

Running through the forest at night was definitely spookier than it had been during the day. The twin moons created strange shadows, making twisted shapes out of what had been a pleasant forest. It reminded Sakura a little of the Forest of Death, and she kept an eye out for predators. She hoped to stay out of reach of anything truly dangerous by jumping from branch to branch, but there had been some creatures in the Forest of Death that she wouldn't want to run into unawares, even today.

Even with her extra caution, it took her less than an hour to cover the distance to the city. The city wall at least was properly lit, and at least somewhat guarded. From the forest Sakura could see two soldiers manning the front gate, and enough soldiers walking the wall that at least two were always in view. She could theoretically sneak her way close to the wall by inching along through the brush in front of it, but she didn't have time for that. Instead, Sakura worked her way around the wall until she was facing a relatively dimly lit section, and began performing an Earth technique.

True masters of the earth element, like her former teacher, could synchronize themselves perfectly with the earth, walking underground as if they were strolling through a city street. For Sakura, the sensation was more like swimming through molasses. Still, her skills were more than sufficient to allow her to drop underground from where she had been standing, and travel towards the wall. With her enhanced strength, it really wasn't much trouble at all to make her way into the city.

At least, that was true until she reached the area corresponding with the city wall. There, the ground had been specially hardened, and refused to yield to the application of her chakra. Frowning to herself, Sakura extended her hand out in front of her, touching the dirt that felt more like steel. She tried moving downward, but the hardened dirt extended underground for as far as she dared to go. There was no immediate danger, as she could easily hold her breath for a few more minutes, but she didn't want to travel too far underground and risk suffocation.

Sakura concentrated a little harder and tried forcing more of her chakra forward. Usually, when a ninja used earth techniques to fortify dirt, the little imperfections in their technique manifested themselves in the end result. A skilled ninja could find those imperfections and use them to attack, breaking the fortification apart like so much crumbling dirt. It was a tricky little technique, but tricky little techniques were Sakura's specialty.

Unfortunately, this reinforcement bore all of the hallmarks of the eerily perfect techniques performed by the Tristainian nobility. There was no loose edge or weak point that would allow her to bring her will to bear. Sakura could try to simply overpower the technique, but such a thing would hardly pass unnoticed up above. It looked like she wasn't going to be able to enter Tristania underground.

Cursing to herself, Sakura paddled her way up to the surface. She first poked only her head aboveground, glancing around to make sure there were no observers on the ground. Thus assured, Sakura scrambled up the wall, again pausing with her body flattened against the wall. She held her body parallel to the ground, with her head and her feet on the same level, inches below the top of the wall.

She listened patiently for the guard's footsteps, picking up the soft sounds as the guard reached her position and kept walking. As soon as the guard was past, Sakura rolled herself up onto the wall, down onto the passageway carved into the top, up the opposite guardwall, and finally stopped, holding herself fast against the opposite side of the wall. She paused for a moment, allowing a brief moment of disorientation to pass and waiting to hear if any of the guards raised the alarm. When nothing happened, she suppressed a sigh of relief and took stock of the city before her.

Tristania was nearly empty at this time of night, or rather at this early hour in the morning. Here and there individual torches bobbed through the streets as individuals ran late night errands or the night watch made its rounds, but by and large the city was shut down. Sakura dropped to the ground and made her way from shadow to shadow, careful to make no sound and leave no tracks.

She reached Osmond's apothecary without any incident, and spent a moment contemplating the front door. She was confident that she could pick that lock, but she was a little concerned about the possibility of traps. Osmond had seemed the type that would leave traps behind before he left his store for the night. She wasn't seriously concerned about being hurt, but it would be a hassle if an alarm were sounded, and she definitely would have a hard time leaving the store as she found it if she set off some kind of damaging trap on the way in.

Fortunately, she thought to herself as she kicked the dirt road beneath her feet, she had other options. A quick exertion of earth chakra let the kunoichi slip out of sight underground without a trace. She easily paddled her way underground until she was under the open area in front of the sales counter. Smiling, she moved to surface inside of the store-only to be stopped suddenly as her head ran into another barrier of hardened earth.

The smile left Sakura's face as she cursed to herself internally. It looked like Osmond the Blade was a bit of a hypocrite when it came to the use of magecraft. This changed things considerably-it wasn't much of a leap from a magically hardened floor to a magically triggered alarm, and Sakura had no way of disarming such a thing. Still, she desperately needed to find reagents, and based on her scouting trip she was unlikely to find a more vulnerable store. There was nothing for it but to go forward. This was one of those situations where a ninja needed to continue on a mission, even facing an uncertain risk of death... although Sakura somehow doubted that her instructor had ever contemplated this particular scenario when he was lecturing chuunin hopefuls.

First things first, though, she had to get inside. Once again the hardened floor resisted her efforts to soften it. This time, though, there were no guards, so Sakura had other options. She carefully cleared out the earth around her until she had some space to maneuver, and then tapped the floor above her head. From the sound of it the hardened floor was about two inches thick, with open space up above.

Doing her best to calculate the appropriate force vectors with an unknown material, Sakura channeled chakra to her fist as she jabbed upwards. An observer in the store would have heard a sharp cracking noise as her hand broke cleanly through the floor. Fortunately for Sakura, there was no such observer.

She cleared away enough of an opening to allow herself access, and carefully hoisted herself through, channeling a bit of chakra to her eyes. For those born without an eye-based bloodline limit, the eye could withstand only a tiny amount of chakra, and channeling too much risked cooking the eyeball from the inside out. Sakura, though, could easily provide the trickle of chakra that significantly enhanced low light vision without risking any damage. Despite the dim light of the moons filtering in through the window, the store looked to her to be as bright as day.

Sakura appeared to be alone in the store. No audible alarm was sounding, although of course any kind of pandemonium might be breaking out in Osmond's home at that very minute. Sakura shook off the pessimistic thought. For all she knew magically hardened flooring was a standard part of Tristainian building practices, and hardly a security measure at all. In any event, best to be about her business quickly.

For a moment she glanced behind the counter, where the truly priceless reagents were kept-the tears of a water spirit, scale of some kind of dragon, skin of a basilisk, and so on. The items were sealed in a safe that was clearly magical in nature, and while she might be able to break it open, there would be no way of concealing her actions if she did so. Sakura forced herself away from such impractical targets and instead made a beeline for the most valuable reagents left out on the showroom floor.

All of Osmond's reagents were kept in standardized glassware that was readily available in Tristania. In her earlier visit to the city Sakura had picked up a set of such containers, along with some other things, with the money helpfully provided by her pickpocketing marks. She now unrolled a scroll from her belt, bit her thumb, and unsealed a bottle filled with salt water. She switched it with the bottle behind the sign labeled "elf's tears" before sealing the bottle containing the reagent into her scroll. She repeated this process as she made her way down the line, replacing a jar of cockatrice liver with a jar of chicken liver, a bottle of gryphon's blood with a bottle of cow's blood, and so on.

When she finished, Sakura had a scroll containing twenty of the more valuable reagents available in Halkeginia, while Osmond the Blade had shelves stocked with reasonable facsimiles thereof. The replacements would pass a visual inspection, but Sakura had no idea what would happen if they were used in a spell. Really, as long as Louise never bought anything from Osmond, she didn't care.

Before she left, Sakura took a moment to tidy up the store. Her imperfect control of her earth burrowing technique had left some dirt attached to her that she had wound up tracking through the store. Fortunately the scarf covering her hair doubled as a fairly serviceable dustrag. She tidied the store quickly and shook the loose dirt out of the scarf into the hole through which she had entered.

Dropping back through the hole, Sakura focused for a moment, reaching her chakra out through the earth. She forced it to flow in between the hardened, inaccessible portions of the floor, creating a perfect seal. Thanks to her chakra connection with the earth she could feel its position relative to ground level, and she was able to leave the patch perfectly smooth, nothing to distinguish it from the rest of the floor other than a slight difference in the feel of the hardening technique used.

Deciding that that was the best she could do, Sakura retraced her path out from under the store, rising out of the ground in a dark corner of the alley. Brushing herself off, she carefully made her way back out of the city. The temptation to relax now that she had possession of her mission objection was strong, but relaxing before the job was over was a bad habit, and both of her teachers had very firm opinions about bad habits.

Still, she felt that if she made good time in the forest, she would be able to fit in another couple hours of sleep before she had to wake up and attend to her chores.

ooOoo

The next few days settled into a surprisingly comfortable rhythm. First, Sakura would get up before the sunrise to perform the chores Louise had assigned the previous night. Although it was demeaning for a chuunin to perform what were essentially low end D-rank missions, Sakura actually found it comforting to lose herself in the movements of domestic life. The laundry and cleaning were always fairly easy, and she found she enjoyed dressing Louise in the mornings. It was something like having a life sized doll, at least until the doll was fully dressed and started ordering her around.

Once she had finished her chores and woken and dressed her master, Sakura was allowed to leave the Academy on her search for reagents while Louise attended classes. Sakura worried a little bit that she was not fulfilling the bodyguard role expected of a familiar, but Louise had made her views on that point perfectly clear.

Sakura could have mentioned her successful burglary to her master, but she had noticed that Louise was not yet showing any particular sense of urgency in replacing her, so she held off. Sakura had always been something of a perfectionist, and she disliked closing a mission before all of the loose ends had been tied off. So each day she made her way to Tristania and whiled away the day, occasionally supplementing her savings with donations from particularly easy marks.

Every evening Sakura would make her way back to the Academy just as the evening meal was begun. She became a fixture of the kitchens, engaging in pleasant conversation with Siesta and helping to deliver dessert. The Academy apparently believed that every day merited a feast, as every day Sakura's tray carried a full spread of indulgent treats, from Tristainian chocolates to the pastries that seemed to be provided for Kirche's pleasure alone.

After dinner Sakura would meet up with her master and accompany her back to her quarters, watching with quiet horror as her master quarreled with her fellow classmates in the halls. Kirche was of course a frequent target, but Louise exchanged insults with other students as well, from Montmorency to Malicorne to Guiche. Sakura was having a harder and harder time squaring the surprisingly intense level of verbal provocation with the complete lack of actual violence.

She was starting to suspect that the Tristain Academy of Magic covered a very different curriculum than the Konoha Nina Academy. Still, while she had her suspicions, she was certain that a familiar who asked inconvenient questions would quickly be replaced by a more compliant familiar, so she held her peace.

In the evenings, Louise would study quietly, focusing on her books with a fierce determination that reminded Sakura of herself back when she was at school. The mage made little effort to get to know Sakura personally, preferring to keep an emotional distance between them for reasons Sakura could only guess at.

It was not the life Sakura was used to, but it really wasn't too bad. Still, she would be much happier once she had proved her use to her master and stood on more solid ground.

ooOoo

It had been four days since Sakura's theft of the reagents, and she was enjoying a lovely summers morning in Tristania. Clad in a simple green sundress, she was resting on a bench in a small park in one of Tristania's poorer areas. At the moment, she was breaking pieces off of a loaf of bread to feed to the pigeons.

Over time, most ninja picked up certain eccentricities. Neji liked to watch birds in flight, to imagine the freedom that he could never truly have. Tsunade liked to gamble, as if she could somehow use up all of her bad luck in that one aspect of her life. Kakashi liked to read pornography in public... actually, Sakura wasn't sure why he did that. Sakura herself liked to feed animals. It let her feel like she was providing for another living being, proof that she wasn't just put on this world to kill and kill and kill. She received a similar thrill from performing medical ninjutsu, but that was a relatively recent development. She had enjoyed feeding birds since she was in the academy.

It was a habit, true, but it also gave her something innocuous to do on a stakeout. The park bench she was occupying provided her with a superb view of the mouth of the alley leading to Osmond's store, and she had a hard time repressing a smile when she saw two city guards striding purposefully down the alley.

Sakura hardly needed to strain herself to hear what came next.

"You Tristainian snakes! How dare you besmirch the good name of Osmond the Blade!" The mighty bellow echoed through the city streets, and was followed by the familiar sounds of combat.

After a brief scuffle, there was a tremendous crashing noise, and one of the guardsmen came flying out of the alley. As soon as he came to a stop he popped back up to his feet and ran back in, accompanied this time by four more of his companions.

"Ha! At least you curs know it will take a pack of you to bring down a wolf like Osmond the Blade!" Osmond's voice rang out, having lost none of its bravado.

Sakura, though, could hear the unmistakeable signs of fatigue in his voice, and was relieved to know that the battle was likely to end soon without requiring her intervention. A few moments later there was a final crash, and silence fell over the crowd that had gathered at the mouth of the alley.

The crowd soon parted to let the guardsmen pass. From her vantage point Sakura had a clear view as they came out. Two of them were carrying one of their fellows between them, while three of the others were occupied in dragging Osmond's enormous bulk behind them. They were not particularly careful where they dragged him, and Sakura felt sure that if there had been any doubt as to his guilt, it had been laid to rest by the fight.

Still, leaving anything to chance was a bad habit, so Sakura went about her business in Tristania until it was time to head back for the evening meal.

ooOoo

"So then Guiche said... are you even listening?" Siesta asked, cutting her story short when she noticed that her dining companion was staring off into space.

"Huh? Did you say something?" Sakura asked. Usually she enjoyed listening to the maid, but today she was occupied with a serious problem that was only becoming more pressing as the time for dessert arrived.

"Sakura, are you all right?" Siesta asked, genuine concern on her face.

"Oh, it's nothing." Sakura waved off the inquiry. "I was just thinking about my familiar duties."

In fact, almost all of Sakura's attention was on the vial concealed in her left sleeve. She had been exerting her senses to the utmost every time she was in the Alviss Dining Hall, and she had detected absolutely no protection against poison. Unfortunately, with the way these mages performed their techniques, that didn't mean there was no protection in place. Sakura would have liked to have tested things out before going after her primary target, but this wasn't exactly something you could test without people noticing.

After another moments consideration, Sakura decided that she had to go for it. She had to prove her master that she could be effective against her enemies. Besides, the liquid in the vial was not a poison in itself, so it shouldn't trigger a general anti-poison spell. Since it was from her world originally, she felt it was unlikely that the Tristainians would have any specific counter-measures in place.

It irked her sense of professionalism that she was reduced to guessing about her target's capabilities, but she was hardly in a position to ask pointed questions.

"Oh, I hope things are going well with you and Ms. Valliere," Siesta commented, before glancing around at the kitchen. "Speaking of duties, it looks like it's about time we served dessert."

Nodding, Sakura followed the maid through the kitchen to the dessert tray. As she passed her hand over the tray before picking it up, she released enough liquid from the vial to dose all of the Germanian pastries on the tray. She did her best to make sure not to dose the other desserts, and was particularly careful to ensure that none of the liquid touched the cream desserts that her master favored.

None of the kitchen staff noticed her sleight of hand, and Sakura followed Siesta out of the kitchen as she always did. The students eagerly took dessert off the tray as they always did, bypassing the Germanian pastries as usual. Kirche seized on the pastries as she always did, hardly breaking in her conversation. Louise smiled and nodded at Sakura as she dug into her cream dessert-it had taken her master two days before she decided to openly acknowledge Sakura's presence among the waitstaff, but she had been assiduously courteous ever since.

Sakura forced herself to continue around the table as usual and rely on her peripheral vision to keep track of Kirche. The Germanian mage dug into her dessert with gusto, finishing off the pastry before Sakura had even finished her rounds.

Sakura kept her face and posture carefully controlled while she was in the dining hall, but she couldn't help feeling as if an enormous weight had just lifted off of her shoulders. It must have been pretty noticeable, as Siesta commented on her demeanor after she had changed out of the servants uniform and made to leave and meet up with Louise.

"Oh, I just decided that I need to have a conversation with my master and straighten some things out." Sakura said, smiling at her friend. "I was worried about how things would go, but I think if I just keep a positive outlook everything will be fine."

ooOoo

Sakura closed the door to Louise's room behind herself as usual. However, instead of leaving her master in peace to begin her studies, the kunoichi cleared her throat to get her attention. "Master, we need to talk."

Louise sighed, before turning to face Sakura. "Very well. I've been expecting this."

"I have two missions to report in on. First..." Sakura said, removing a scroll from her belt with a flourish before unsealing her reagents. She had placed all of the glassware into a container for maximum visual effect. "Reagents. As you can see-"

"What- where- how-" Louise sputtered, before collecting herself and directing a glare at Sakura. "I never gave you any money. You didn't sign for credit in my name, did you?"

"Of course not!" Sakura replied, hurt at the insult to her abilities. "You see, one of the apothecaries in the commoners' district had very poor security-"

"Oh no," Louise moaned, sinking into her chair and holding her head in her hands. She began muttering to herself, although Sakura thought she could hear the words "the familiar's actions are the actions of the master" being repeated.

Sakura was worried. Not only was this not going at all like she had planned, but she wasn't used to dealing with emotions like this. She worked with people who only showed emotions to their very closest friends, and Naruto, who was never anything but positive. She wasn't quite sure how to be comforting. What was worse, Louise seemed to be working herself up to the sort of display of emotion that most ninja didn't let witnesses walk away from.

"Master, what's wrong?" Sakura asked. "I can assure you that-"

"What's wrong!" Louise shouted. "What's wrong is that you've forever stained the name of Valliere! Thievery! By my familiar! I can't believe it!"

"Master, please," Sakura said, "there's no chance that you or I could be caught."

"Oh?" Louise said, drawing herself up and fixing a bleak gaze on Sakura. "You sound very confident."

"Of course. I wouldn't have said anything to you if I weren't confident." Sakura said, a little heated in response to the continued disparagement of her skills. "You see, this morning the city watch arrested Osmond the Blade for the sale of counterfeit reagents."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Louise asked, clearly not appeased.

"Simple. Three nights ago I replaced these reagents in Osmond's store with rather clever fakes, if I do say so myself." Sakura explained, smirking.

"You- oh." Louise said, taking a seat once more. She paused a moment, thinking through the situation. "But why, in the Founder's name, why did you do this?"

"Master, you told me what a familiar does." Sakura said, meeting Louise's eyes with her own. "Retrieve reagents and destroy your enemies. I was just doing my job."

"Your job? I asked you to do laundry!" Louise shouted, upset once more.

"Master, please." Sakura said, deciding that it was time to get the truth out in the open. "Washing clothes, cleaning your room... this is the work of a servant. A familiar who can't do anything more than servant's work is useless... as you told me, there's only one way you could try again to get a useful familiar."

Louise stared at Sakura, open mouthed, but didn't say anything as she continued to explain her actions.

"I wanted to prove to you that I could be useful, that there was no need to... clear the decks to cast Summon Servant once more." Sakura said, unable to keep the emotion out of her voice completely.

"You- you, think I'm some kind of monster." Louise said, subdued.

"No, not at all." Sakura replied, shaking her head. "I could tell this week, the way you didn't want to get to know me... Where I come from, there are those who would kill their friends in a heartbeat, if that is the way to power."

Sakura paused for a moment, lost in her memories, before she continued. "I could tell that you weren't like that. Even if that meant my master was a little soft hearted... I thought it was nice."

"You thought I was soft-hearted... because I wouldn't kill a friend?" Louise asked.

"No, no." Sakura shook her head once more, before giving Louise a reassuring smile. "I know you could, but I could tell it would be hard for you."

"We... we need to talk about where you came from." Louise said, blankly, before a sudden sense of resolve appeared on her face. "But first! What are we going to do about this Osmond the Blade character?"

"What do you mean? They've already convicted him of his crimes." Sakura replied, puzzled.

"We can't just let an innocent man rot in prison!" Louise exclaimed.

"Oh," Sakura said, smiling as she finally understood. "I didn't tell you... he's Germanian."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Louise asked.

"You say it yourself often enough, Germanians are scum." Sakura replied. "Besides, this guy... in a war, he'd be helping out Germania in no time flat. Trash like that, you kill them when you find them. I don't even know why they let him into the city in the first place."

"Don't talk like that! I don't like Germanians, but that doesn't mean you can just frame up some random guy and send him to jail." Louise said emphatically. "We need to figure out what we're going to do about this! Although, I guess if he's in jail, he's not going anywhere while we figure this out."

"Well, actually," Sakura said, chuckling nervously, "he resisted arrest pretty strenuously. The trial was this afternoon, and they said they would be executing him at sundown on the Day of Void."

"I don't believe this!" Louise shouted. "Osmond the Blade will be executed on the Day of Void! This is a disaster!"

Sakura was about to reply, but was distracted by a shout from just outside Louise's room, followed by a thump as if somebody had just fallen to the floor. Louise strode past her to open the door, revealing the form of Kirche von Zerbst sprawled in the hallway. For once the excitable Germanian had a serious expression on her face, as she stared at Louise in horror.

"Zero... what did you do?" 


	4. Chapter Three

Louise grabbed Kirche by the front of her cloak and hauled her into the room. Slamming the door behind her, she turned to glare at her rival, absently noting that her familiar had somehow hidden away the reagents that were at the root of this whole mess. Sakura was standing by the writing desk looking as composed as ever-if she was thrown off kilter by their recent discussion, Louise certainly couldn't see it.

Her familiar was just always so damn prim and proper. Not to mention a bit of a prude, judging by her reaction to the Contract Servant spell. Every order was met with a simple "yes, master" and followed without a hint of complaint. Even when she was forced into the humiliating position of serving meals, she kept the same placid expression on her face. Louise just didn't understand how a mage could do such things.

Louise herself had been in a state of near panic ever since she had seen her familiar perform magic on the night she was summoned, pulling a camp bed out of nowhere. She didn't know how her reputation in school could sink much lower, but she had a feeling she would find out if word ever got around that her familiar could perform more magic than she could. She could almost hear Kirche's voice trying out the nickname "Louise the sub-zero," or questioning whether it was really Louise who should be the familiar.

Every night, Louise had thrown herself into her studying with new fervor, desperate to surpass her familiar. She saw no results-perhaps one could say that twice the studying had led to twice the successes, but twice zero was still zero. Every night she wondered if it was the night when her familiar would finally insist on being treated as a mage ought to be. To find out instead that the girl was some kind of master thief had really caught her wrong-footed.

Right now Kirche was looking like she had been caught rather wrong-footed as well. The usually vivacious redhead was standing in the middle of the room where Louise had released her, still staring at Louise in shock.

"This isn't the kind of conversation we should be having in the hallway, Zerbst." Louise hissed. "Which reminds me-what were you doing eavesdropping on my private conversations?"

Faced with the familiar sight of Louise in a snit, Kirche regained some of her composure. "Well, I couldn't help being curious. You were shouting so loudly I could almost make out what you were saying in my room."

"That's no excuse for skulking about in the halls like a thief in the night!" Louise exclaimed, outraged.

Kirche chuckled. "I guess you would know all about that, ne?"

Louise's face reddened, but she could think of nothing to say. Kirche waved her hand magnanimously.

"But enough about that," she continued. "You say this man to be executed is known as Osmond the Blade?"

Louise nodded. She was surprised to see Kirche's eyes light up as the redhead clutched her hands together over her chest. "The Osmond the Blade, from the tale of Osmond the Blade and the Temple of Doom? And Osmond the Blade and the Vengeance of Rabeed? And the battle with Akim the Terrible?"

"I don't know about that," Sakura spoke up from behind the Germanian. "But he did call himself the greatest swordsman in the greatest company-"

"... in the second greatest division of the Germanian army!" Kirche finished together with Sakura, then wheeled back to face Louise. "Oh, to think that the hero from my childhood bedtime stories is in Tristania."

"And he's in peril!" Kirche continued, dramatically throwing the back of her hand against her forehead. "Louise, you must come foreward and prove his innocence."

"That would be difficult." Sakura said, interrupting again. "There's no evidence left behind. Besides, he really did resist arrest. I heard he broke the back of one of the members of the city guard."

"Then we have no choice!" Kirche declared, turning once more to face her rival. "Louise, we must save him!"

"Are you mad, Kirche?" Louise asked, flushing. "He's being held in Genoa prison. We'd never be able to get him away from there, it's too risky."

"Well then," Kirche said, leaning forward. "Maybe I'll have to tell the headmaster what you've been up to, hmm..."

"This is blackmail!" Louise sputtered angrily.

"Such an ugly word... but yes." Kirche said. "So what will it be, Zero?"

Louise was brought out of her anger by a sudden prickling feeling in the back of her mind. She was suddenly very aware of the fact that Sakura was standing behind Kirche, and that she could not see her familiar's left hand from where she was standing. Sakura had not moved, but her posture had shifted to the sort of ready stance Louise associated with her mother, Karin of the Heavy Wind, right before the beginning of a duel. Her familiar's eyes were locked on her own, eyebrow raised to ask an obvious question.

"All right, all right, calm down." Louise said, waving her hands placatingly while shaking her head. "I was always going to help, but I couldn't just say yes to such a crazy idea. Learn some subtlety, Zerbst."

"So it is decided!" Kirche declared, ignoring the rebuke. Flinging her hair back over her shoulder, Kirche marched over to the door, before turning back to address Louise and her familiar. "The Day of the Void is the day after tomorrow... we can meet after classes tomorrow to plan. Then, we act. It will be Osmond the Blade and the Ardent Sorceress!"

ooOoo

Sakura and Louise looked at each other without saying anything for a moment after Kirche's departure. It was Louise who broke the silence.

"Could you, do something..." She said, then trailed off, gesturing vaguely at the door.

Sakura nodded, catching her master's meaning. Walking over to the door, she bit her thumb, formed a few hand seals, and pressed her palm up against the doors. A short stream of seals appeared, crawling up the doorframe and over the adjacent wall, before vanishing in a puff of smoke.

"That's pretty low level, but we shouldn't have to worry about any more accidental eavesdroppers." Sakura said, smiling.

She was taken by surprise when Louise responded to this statement by clutching her head and sinking onto her bed with a groan. "Oh, why can't I have any good surprises today."

"Master, what's wrong?" Sakura asked, puzzled.

"What's wrong? You can do magic!" Louise responded.

"What does it matter what techniques I can perform?" Sakura asked, worried that she may have demonstrated knowledge of some forbidden secret.

"To have a noble as a familiar... it will be a scandal! I could be expelled." Louise explained.

"Oh." Sakura said. "But Master, I'm not a noble."

"Really? What are you then?" Louise asked sarcastically.

"I'm a chuunin of Konohagakure." Sakura said, as she had on the night she arrived in this world. Seeing that Louise was waiting for further explanation, she continued. "My primary focus is on medical techniques, although I have also been trained in earth elemental techniques."

"Hmm..." Louise replied, still unconvinced. "Can you show me an earth technique?"

"I suppose." Sakura replied. Frowning for a moment, she focused on the castle around her. All of the nearby stone had been hardened against manipulation, so she turned her attention within. After a moment of concentration, she was able to convert some of her chakra into a ball of earth in her hand. This was an intermediate level control exercise-Sakura would never have the reserves to throw around mud dragons or giant mud walls like some ninja, but her impeccable control had allowed her to progress on her elemental training despite an already demanding schedule of medical training.

Once the ball of dirt was in her hand, she turned her attention to the shaping exercise. This was a little trickier, but she soon had a reasonable likeness of Louise's face formed out of earth. Finally, she focused on hardening the dirt. Once it had taken a stone-like texture, she tossed the little statue over to her master. Louise caught it and studied it carefully before placing it on her desk with a sigh.

"Those other things you did, maybe they were just tricks or something. But that was definitely an earth spell." Louise said. "You must have been a noble, unless... you weren't some kind of criminal, were you?"

"No, definitely not!" Sakura replied forcefully. "Chuunin are more like soldiers. In Fire Country, nobles... usually can't really fight at all."

"Why do you keep arguing with me about this?" Louise asked. "Don't you want to be a noble?"

"I don't care about nobility! I want to go home!" Sakura explained. "It's not like I can walk there-back home, we only have one moon."

Both girls sat in silence for a moment, thinking, before Sakura continued, speaking more softly now. "Tell me, am I more likely to find my way home as a landless noble out roaming the countryside, or here, in the Academy, with you?"

"Hmph," Louise responded, throwing herself back on the bed. "Still, someone like you, the familiar of someone like me... it's a bad joke."

"What?" Sakura asked, offended.

"You know my nickname, right?" Louise asked.

"Yes. They call you Louise the Zero." Sakura replied.

"But do you know why they call me that?" Louise asked.

"Hmm... where I come from, you have to kill a lot of people before you get a nickname. Konoha's Yellow Flash, the Demon of the Mist, the God of Shinobi... those names were written in the blood of hundreds of enemies." Sakura mused. "I thought you had carved a similar path through your classmates. The zero refers to the survival rate of your opponents, maybe?"

Louise held a pillow over her face and groaned out loud, before sitting up to fix Sakura with a heated glare. "They call me that because the success rate of my spells is zero!"

Sakura blinked. "But I heard you sent one of the teachers in for medical treatment?"

"Yes, because my spell exploded!" Louise exclaimed.

"I thought you said all of your spells failed?" Sakura asked, puzzled. "Explosions can be very useful, you know."

"Not when you're trying to transmute a rock into metal!" Louise seemed perversely determined to demean her abilities. "I'm the number one student in the class in written tests, but when it comes to practical work I'm a complete failure as a mage!"

"Maa, maa, you must be good at something to survive this long, right?" Sakura asked, trying to cheer up her master. "One of my friends in Konoha had a condition that prevented him from projecting his chakra at all, but he just worked hard on his hand to hand fighting. Now he's one of the strongest ninja his age!"

"Hand-to-hand fighting? Do I look like a soldier to you?" Louise asked.

"No, but... they must teach you that sort of thing here..." Sakura said uncertainly.

"No, definitely not! This is the Tristain Academy for Magic, not some kind of boot camp." Louise replied.

Sakura's eyebrow twitched slightly as she processed this information. Suddenly the events of the past week took on an entirely different meaning, and "Operation: Kill Master and Run for the Hills" was a viable option once more. Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself. She had actually been telling the truth to Louise earlier-all she wanted to do was get home, and she had no idea how to do it on her own. It seemed unlikely that she would find a better place for magical research than a school dedicated to magic.

However much of a zero Louise might be magically, she came from a rich and powerful family. Putting on her friendliest smile, Sakura couldn't help laughing a little to herself. Negotiating with Louise... it really would be like dealing with the nobles back home.

Louise had shrank back somewhat when Sakura unconsciously released some killing intent into the room, but was drawn forward by Sakura's smile.

"You know, Louise, I think we could help each other out." She said, cheerfully. "How about I help you improve that success rate of yours and you help me find a way back home?"

"You... you think you could do that?" Louise asked, hope shining in her eyes.

"Sure," Sakura said, shrugging. "How hard could it be?"

Louise slumped back. "Come to class with me tomorrow before you say that."

ooOoo

The next morning Sakura hung around Louise's room after helping her master get dressed. Louise seemed uncomfortable, fidgeting for a moment before gathering the courage to speak.

"You know," she said, "yesterday... I saw how you were looking at Kirche. In class today, I don't want there to be any violence."

"But Louise," Sakura replied, nonplussed, "part of my duty as your familiar is to help you destroy your enemies."

"Your job," Louise growled, "is to PROTECT me from my enemies!"

"The only difference is a matter of timing." Sakura replied, unphased.

"No! I will not have it!" Louise said, then sighed. "Look, I've been going to school for a year now and nobody has attacked me in class. If there's any kind of real confrontation, it's just going to take longer for me to get my magic working and for you to get home."

Sakura finally relented and nodded in agreement, and the two girls headed off to class together.

ooOoo

Louise had told Sakura that Kaita was an unpopular professor, and it only took a few minutes in his classroom to see why. He walked into the room with a sour look on his face, and seemed to feel horribly put upon to have to explain anything to his students. After taking roll, he began the class by asking Kirche what the most powerful element was.

"Isn't that the 'Void' element?" Kirche asked in reply.

"I'm not asking for something out of legends." Kaita said, disdainfully. "I want something realistic."

Kirche smiled and confidently answered "That has to be the fire element, Professor Kaita."

Sakura couldn't help but snort derisively at that answer.

Kirche turned towards her with fire in her eyes. "Do you have something to say to me, Zero-oh my goodness, there are two of you."

Indeed, with Sakura dressed in her nicest available civilian clothing, she did bear a striking resemblance to her master. The primary difference between the two of them, besides their eye color, was that Sakura did not have a cloak on. She had considered putting on her traveling cloak earlier, but it was a rather practical and weather beaten thing, not suited for wearing among the upper class.

"Zerbst, please pay attention to me when you're speaking in class." Kaita scolded her. "And Valliere, does your familiar have something to contribute to the class?"

A titter of laughter ran through the classroom, as though Kaita had suggested having an animal come up and continue his lecture. Sakura was hardly going to take that sort of thing lying down, so she began to speak, ignoring the elbow Louise had jammed into her side.

"Each element is weak against one other element, and strong against one other elements. The elements are in balance, as nature is in balance, and as we should be in balance. To walk the path of balance is our goal in this life." Sakura said, quoting the Sage of Six Paths. She then continued in her own words. "One mage might be stronger than another mage who uses a different element, but that's because of the strength of the mage, not the element."

"That's... absolutely correct." Kaita said, writing something down in his notes. The man may be a jerk, but he clearly knew quality material when it had been handed to him. "Zerbst, let's have a practical demonstration. Attack me with your best fire elemental attack."

Kirche started in surprise. "It won't be a simple scald, I'm warning you."

"No problem, give me your best shot. Don't tell me the flaming red hair of the Zerbst family is there just for looks?" Kaita taunted her.

Kirche's usual smile disappeared. She took on a much more serious demeanor as she drew her wand and aimed her other hand at her teacher. She waved her wand, and from her extended right hand appeared a small fireball. As Kirche chanted her spell, the fireball expanded, resulting in a huge flaming sphere three feet in diameter. Her wrist turned forward and she released the spell.

Kaita made no attempt to dodge the giant sphere of fire heading towards him. He raised his wand and made several sweeping motions in front of himself. A raging gale suddenly began and instantly scattered the huge fireball. It even knocked down Kirche, who was standing on the other side of the room.

Sakura was impressed. Kirche's attack hadn't really been anything special, but to neutralize a fire attack using wind despite the elemental disadvantage, that took skill.

"Everyone, you see why you should be careful when you are up against a wind mage. A strong enough wind can sweep up everything." Kaita announced, before pausing. "Yes, Valliere?"

"Professor," Louise asked, "could I try casting a spell?"

"Eheheh," Kaita chuckled nervously, "after last time, I don't think that's a good idea."

"But Professor," Louise insisted, "how can I improve if I don't try?"

"Fine." The professor yielded to her request. "But you shouldn't just jump into casting against a live target."

Kaita made a gesture with his wand, and a straw dummy burst out of a storage closet and floated down to take a place next to him in the front of the classroom. When the dummy was in place Kaita moved out of the way, ducking behind the solid oaken desk in the front of the room. The other students also scrambled under their desks in a panic. Soon, only Louise and Sakura were visible.

"Ok, here we go! I'm definitely getting the fireball right this time for sure." Louise announced, and began waving her wand.

Immediately Sakura could tell something was wrong. For the first time since she had entered this world, she was sensing somebody else's power from a distance. Nothing of the like had happened when Kirche created her fireball, so Louise must be doing something wrong. Not only that, but the power she was feeling felt unbalanced and... unclean. When Sasuke had tapped into the power of Orochimaru's cursed seal had felt similarly disturbing, but at least that evil had a human component to it. This feeling coming from Louise felt completely alien, and left Sakura wishing she could give her soul a bath somehow. Teaching her master how to harness something like this... Sakura sighed internally. Continually reevaluating her master's danger level was becoming troublesome.

Louise finished preparing the spell and thrust her hand forward, shouting the final incantation. Predictably, no fireball materialized. Instead, the power she had gathered spread out and advanced forward, before converging together in a small ball centered on the target dummy. Once the power had compressed to a critical point it exploded outward, scattering school supplies and flinging Louise back against the far wall. Only Sakura's quick reaction in ducking beneath her desk spared her a similar fate.

Kaita stood up from behind his desk, shaking his head. "Well, Ms. Valliere, it looks like the same results as last time... and I think it will be the same punishment as last time as well."

As the other students filed out of the classroom, Kaita waved his wand a final time. A mop and bucket floated out of the classroom and gently came to rest at Louise's feet.

ooOoo

Sakura and Louise were both thoroughly sick of cleaning by the time they returned to Louise's room. The dour instructor had supervised the entire detention, leaving them unable to speak freely about Louise's trouble with magic. The cleaning itself had left Louise exhausted. Although Sakura was as physically affected, she would be just as happy not to see a scrub brush for a long time.

"Well," Sakura said, turning to her master, "I can definitely tell that something is going wrong."

"No kidding!" Louise shot her a weak glare before collapsing onto the bed. "I think everyone in the school could tell that something went wrong."

"No, no," Sakura said. "I could feel something going wrong as soon as you started casting the spell. To fix it, we're going to have to start at the beginning."

Sakura put her finger up in a lecturing pose, and then caught herself. "Heh, I don't have my teaching material with me. Do you have something I can write on?"

Louise roused herself off the bed and pulled a blank sheet of parchment off of her desk. She wrapped in around her pen and threw them both in Sakura's direction. Sakura caught them easily and quickly sketched out a diagram of the chakra circulatory system.

"Chakra is a form of energy produced by all living things. It is composed of both physical and mental energy. Physical energy comes from every cell in your body, while mental energy comes from exercise and experience." Sakura began. "The two different types of energy are combined in your chakra coils and circulated throughout your body. In someone with the right genetics who goes through enough training, excess chakra can be used to perform useful ninjutsu, what you call spells."

"That doesn't sound right." Louise interrupted. "When we learned the basics of magic... hmm..."

The young mage stood and rummaged through the books stored on top of her desk, finally pulling out a slim volume that looked like it had been well used. Finding the page she was looking for, she began to read aloud.

"The true nature of magic remains a mystery. The Legendary Founder, Brimir, explained it to us as follows: 'When we combine the light of our souls with the music of nature, magic is created. If you sing the right tune, you can change the world.'" Louise said, then looked up at Sakura. "There's more in there about how different souls naturally call out to different elements, but nothing about this physical or spiritual energy."

"Hmm..." Sakura thought aloud. "Here, let me try something."

Walking over to stand next to Louise, Sakura cupped her hands together and began channeling chakra. When enough had built up to project a soft blue glow into the room, she looked up to address her master.

"Does that feel like magic to you?" Sakura asked.

"That doesn't make any sense! Magic doesn't feel like anything until it comes together in a spell." Louise responded, clearly upset. "That's like asking what the color blue tastes like."

Further discussion on the topic of magic was cut short by a knock on the door.

ooOoo

"Kirche the Ardent has arrived!" Kirche announced, sweeping into the room. "Now we can begin to plan our adventure!"

"Kirche the Ardent seems to have a tagalong." Louise said dryly, eyeing the blue haired girl trailing behind Kirche with her nose in a book. "If you keep pulling our classmates into this our mission won't stay secret for long."

"Bah, Tabitha goes where I go." Kirche said, waving off Louise's concerns. "Besides, her familiar should prove most useful. Imagine me, riding a dragon through the night sky, red hair blowing in the wind, cradled in the arms of Osmond the Blade. Then he..."

Kirche trailed off, blushing, as she lost herself in her imagination. After a moment Louise threw a pillow at the girl to snap her out of it.

"Enough, you can go have perverted daydreams on your own time, Zerbst." Louise scolded her. "This is serious! How are we going to break somebody out of Genoa prison?"

"Well, we..." Kirche began speaking, then trailed off in thought. "Ne, what do we know about Genoa prison?"

"Solid." Tabitha spoke for the first time. The blue haired girl had settled herself on Louise's bed without looking up from her book. Despite that, Sakura had a feeling that Tabitha was a lot more serious in her training than the other girls. Watching her keep track of everything that was going on in the room without looking up from her book was actually making Sakura feel a little nostalgic.

"Yes!" Louise exclaimed. "The prison will be solidified against earth techniques, so we won't be able to break in that way. Not that we would anyway, since... hmmm."

A silence fell over the group as it became clear that none of the mages had any idea how to put together a prison break on such short notice. Sighing, Sakura pulled out a pair of scrolls from her belt and unrolled them on the floor.

"Genoa prison consists of the two floors mapped out here. The internal walls, external walls, doors, bars, ceilings, and floors are all hardened against earth manipulation. Eight guards are on duty at all times. During the day the guard rotation is bumped up to twelve guards, but at night eight off duty guards sleep in the on site barracks. Two guards are assigned to patrol around the outside of the building, while the remainder remain inside.

"The main entrance is comprised of two sets of locked doors. The interior guards stay behind the second set of doors, which is never unlocked until the first set of doors is locked. The identity of all people coming into the prison is verified visually before the doors are opened. All guards must remove their helmets at that time.

"Two other guards are assigned to patrol the cells inside, while the remainder usually stay in the barracks area, which is located about one minute away from the cell block and one minute away from the entrance.

"Osmond the Blade is likely being held in the high security cells on the second floor. To get there you have to go in through the main entrance, proceed through the guard's break room, and up the internal staircase. The staircase contains another checkpoint where visitors are screened visually.

"To break out of this prison... is not an easy task."

Sakura finished her repot and sat back, satisfied. At that point she noticed the shock on the faces of Kirche and Louise, along with an evaluating glance being directed at her by Tabitha.

"What?" Sakura said, slightly defensive. "I haven't just been twiddling my thumbs when I go to town, you know."

Whenever ninja were sent on a long term infiltration missions, one of the highest priority pieces of information for them were the details of the local jail. It was only common sense to figure out that kind of thing in case you became a guest in such an establishment. Ideally, the information would be provided by the home village before the mission started, but that was not always possible. Gathering such information could be pretty hair raising, since the hidden villages were aware that it was a high priority.

In Tristania it hadn't taken much more than a few sob stories. Sakura, like most ninja, could cry on command, and most soldiers had a hard time resisting the urge to comfort a tearful girl afflicted by nightmares of escaped, revenge-crazed criminals. The individual guardsmen probably didn't realize how much information they were giving up. She hadn't needed to talk to many of them before she had gathered a pretty complete picture.

"Ok!" Kirche said, trying to regain her momentum. "This is some good information. With this, we should definitely be able to come up with a foolproof plan!"

Again a silence settled over the room. Sakura waited until it became clear that nobody else was going to speak before she sighed again.

"If I might make a suggestion..."

ooOoo

Sakura, Louise, and Kirche entered the main square of Tristania shortly before sundown. All three girls were dressed in rather drab traveling clothes and wore scarves to conceal their distinctive hair. Sakura was not thrilled with the modifications that the mages had made to her plan, but she hid her unease behind a professionally blank expression. She figured if worst came to worst it would be pretty easy for her to disappear in the pandemonium that was likely to break out tonight, but she was actually starting to feel a little attached to Louise. The girl wanted so badly to prove herself that she was taking a terrible risk, getting in over her head on a mission... it struck a chord with Sakura.

Louise herself was still bouncing with excitement after her very first dragon ride. "I have to admit, Tabitha's familiar is pretty cool. That was way faster than riding a horse out here-I see why you hang out with her, Zerbst."

"Hey," Kirche replied, stung. "That's not the only reason, you know. She's a good friend."

"Yeah, yeah." Louise said, settling down. "Nothing to do now but wait, I suppose."

The three girls wandered through the streets as the night gradually deepened. Sakura kept them away from what she had previously identified as the particularly bad parts of town-not that the three of them would be threatened by a group of thugs, but the fewer witnesses with reason to remember they were here, the better.

They drifted from inn to inn as the night darkened and the crowds thinned, appearing to any curious bystanders as if they were just headed to their lodgings for the night. Finally, once the streets were deserted and the city was lit only by the light of the moons, Sakura brought the group to a halt.

"This is it." She warned the two mages. "From now on, there's no backing out."

"I know." Louise spoke quietly, but firmly. "But this is something I have to do."

Kirche nodded her agreement, and the trio headed out towards the prison. The two mages stopped in an abandoned alleyway a block away while Sakura continued onward. Disabling the outer guards was simple enough, and she soon had them buried in the ground up to their necks under hedgerow. The two would wake up in the morning with headaches, but no permanent damage.

She soon returned to the alleyway with the guards' armor, tossing it to her companions. Louise and Kirche stripped down to their underwear and donned the stolen armor. Louise was finished quickly, while Kirche had more trouble.

"Hurry up, Zerbst." Louise whispered. "Maybe you should stop pigging out on those pastries of yours."

"That's not the problem," Kirche replied, struggling to pull on the upper body armor. "These things aren't made for somebody with a womanly figure. You might understand some day."

Louise shook her head, but said nothing further as Kirche finished equipping herself. Sakura approached the duo, who looked rather odd in their misfit armor.

"Even without having to transform your clothes, this technique is only going to last about half an hour." Sakura said, making a last ditch effort to change their minds. "Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?"

Louise sent Kirche a significant look. The Germanian nodded and walked away from the pair, giving master and familiar a modicum of privacy. Due to the cramped confines of the alley, she actually wasn't standing much out of earshot at all.

"Sakura, I know you're the one who's more cut out for this," Louise said, speaking in a low tone of voice. "But when you talked about killing those guards... you said before you were a soldier. I think killing comes easily to you-or at least, it does now."

Louise shook her head sadly, then looked around the alley. After pausing for a moment to gather her thoughts, she continued.

"This whole thing started because of my neglect, I have to be the one to fix it." She said, speaking with conviction. "If a loyal Tristanian guard were to die because of a botched escape attempt, that would be my fault too. You could promise not to kill anybody, but if the situation is dire, I can't expect you to ignore all of your training on my say-so."

Sakura nodded, reluctantly. Her master had her pegged there. She was actually a little touched that Louise was working so hard to be considerate of her feelings.

"Besides," Louise suddenly smiled impishly, "if things do go wrong, I'll have you outside, watching my back."

Sakura started as she heard the subtle emphasis put on the word "my." Thinking over the conversation, she thought she recalled a similar emphasis on "loyal Tristanian." Her mind whirled, trying to figure out what Louise was trying to say. Everything fell into place as the girl directed a significant glance over at Kirche, and Sakura smiled at her master, honestly impressed. To put such a plan together on the fly and communicate it despite an inability to have a truly private meeting... it was more than she could expect from her teammates back in Konoha, frankly.

Of course, there was always the possibility that she was reading too much into things, and Louise genuinely wanted the prison break to go well. Still, a good idea was a good idea, and she would be able to push Louise into playing the right role without too much trouble if she had to. Sakura smiled conspiratorially at her master and gestured her closer.

"Louise," she said, digging into her pouch and removing a small ceramic sphere, "take this. If things get desperate, break it when you hear me yelling."

Louise nodded uncertainly and pocketed the sphere. As she turned to walk back towards Kirche, Sakura placed a hand on her shoulder, holding her in place.

"You know," Sakura said conversationally, "Shinobi Rule 22 says that a ninja has no friends, only temporary allies... but I always have a hard time following that rule."

"Sakura," Louise paused as she was briefly overcome with emotion, "Sakura, I think of you as a friend, too."

Smiling at each other, the pair made their way back over to their red-headed companion. Sakura handed the two mages the identity cards that went with their armor, and then formed a few hand seals as she stood in front of her master. Carefully molding her chakra, she released it with a whispered "Hito no Henge." There was a tiny puff of smoke, and in Louise's place stood the exact image of the guard whose stolen armor she was wearing. Kirche shook her head at the sight.

"You know, Zero, I still have a hard time believing your familiar can pull off such a high end water spell." She said, raising an eyebrow.

"I told you, it's not-" Sakura said, then caught herself. "You know what, I don't care. Believe what you want."

Sakura performed the technique on Kirche as well, and gave the pair one final warning before bidding them farewell.

"Remember, if anybody hits you, the transformation will disperse. If everything goes well, you have half an hour. Be careful, you two."

"We will." Louise responded. "Just stay out here, watch our backs, and don't hurt anybody."

"Don't worry master," Sakura said, smiling. "I'll be on my very best behavior."

ooOoo

Captain Luc Reno of the Night Watch was a busy man. Although he was proud of his position, he sometimes thought back fondly to the days when his nights had been filled with patrols through the city street and the occasional battle with criminals, instead of near-constant battles with paperwork. He hated to have his time wasted, but he would be lying if he said he was completely unhappy when his aide interrupted his work to lead a small pink haired girl into his office.

"What's this about, then?" Captain Reno asked.

"Sir!" The aide saluted. "This girl claims to be the familiar of Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere."

"A human familiar?" The captain asked, looking the girl over. "Those kids over at the Academy just get stranger every year."

"I can prove it, sir." The girl spoke up. Her voice was trembling, but she made a visible effort to control herself and held a sparkling ring up into the light. "My master's ring."

Taking the ring in hand, Captain Reno examined it closely, confirming that it did indeed bear the crest of the Vallieres.

"You're with the Vallieres, all right." He said, then fell silent. After a moment had passed he cleared his throat. "Well, what's this about?"

"Oh," The girl jumped like a startled bird. "Oh, sir, it was so terrible, this woman threatened my master and she went along with it but she sent me to find you and I was so scared and I didn't know where to go and-"

"Enough!" Captain Reno interrupted her. "Get ahold of yourself, girl! What did Valliere send you here to do?"

"She sent me to tell you..." the girl said, pausing to gather her nerve, "that Kirche von Zerbst is here tonight to break Osmond the Blade out of Genoa Prison!"

ooOoo 


	5. Chapter Four

AN: Hey, thanks for the reviews and the interest so far. I always appreciate hearing from readers.

Now, on with the show...

ooOoo

Louise felt a trickle of sweat run down the back of her neck. It was one thing to see the map sketching out the checkpoint guarding the entrance to the prison, but quite another to be standing in the cramped room within the prison itself. The outer doors had shut behind them, leaving Louise and Kirche trapped inside. The walls were marked with scars from what must have been previous attempts at escape, but even the most powerful attacks had only managed to do cosmetic damage to the reinforced earth. The inner doors were made of iron, and barred from the inside. A thin slit had been cut into the wall next to the door, through which Louise could see the eyes of the guard on duty. Looking around, Louise could see a variety of other slits cut into the wall for purposes that she really didn't want to dwell on at the moment.

Louise and Kirche were standing in the middle of the room, heads bared to allow themselves to be identified. Well, Kirche was standing, Louise was leaning up against her and clutching her stomach. With all of the nervous tension she was feeling, it was not taking much effort for her to act sick. With the part of her mind that was not currently panicking over her imminent demise, Louise was doing her best to remember that she and Kirche were actually Renos Duret and Jean-Luc Lathiere, loyal members of the prison guard.

"Duret? Lathiere? What are you doing in here? You still have four hours of patrol duty left." The guard on duty at the door asked.

"I know, but this idiot," Kirche said, gesturing at the figure by her side, "tried to do his job with a bad case of the Founder's revenge. After the third time I had to drag him out of the bushes I figured it was better to get him inside for some treatment. Besides, there's nothing going on outside today anyway."

Louise moaned pitifully, and sagged even further into Kirche's support.

"Tsch. You should be more careful, especially with an execution tomorrow." The guard said, sounding disappointed rather than suspicious, which suited Louise just fine. "Let's get him into the infirmary. But don't think you can slack off just because your partner is sick, Duret."

Kirche grumbled, but said nothing audible in response. There was a clanking noise from inside the prison, and the iron doors slowly swung open. As they did, it became clear that they were more than six inches thick. Louise gulped-suddenly, the pain in her stomach was all too real.

Walking into the prison, they saw that there were three guards on duty at the check point. One was manning the observation slit, taking responsibility for identifying everybody who entered the prison. The other two bore loaded crossbows and sat near the arrow slits that had been carved out of the wall. The guards nodded at Kirche and Louise in greeting, directing sympathetic looks at their suffering colleague.

Kirche nodded to the guards in reply, and then helped Louise walk further into the prison. Past the entry checkpoint was a hallway that Sakura had rather ominously labeled the kill zone. It was narrow-Louise and Kirche were able to walk side-by-side, but squeezing a third person between them would be difficult. The floor sloped upward slightly, giving the defenders at the end of the hallway a small but significant height advantage. The far end of the hallway was protected by a waist high wall, and the walls were dotted with arrow slits. Glancing up, Louise saw numerous murder holes that would allow the defenders to pour hot oil down on any invaders. Even a powerful mage would not take lightly the task of forcing their way into Genoa Prison.

The two men guarding the barricade called out a greeting as Kirche and Louise drew near, before directing their attention to Louise. "What happened to him?"

"This idiot tried to do his patrol in between attacks of the galloping trots." Kirche said, shaking her head. "I'm getting him in to medical before heading back out to finish our patrol."

The guards chuckled at her misfortune, although one of them looked at Louise sympathetically. "How many times do I have to tell you to lay off the Romalian food, Jean-Luc? I don't see how you can bear to eat that stuff, even without considering what it does to you after."

Louise just groaned and shook her head as she and Kirche walked past the barricade. Past that point, the hallway widened and Louise could almost have convinced herself that they were back in the Academy, except for the thickness of the walls and the obvious reinforcement of the doors. The first floor was largely comprised of living space for the prison guards; during each four week rotation at the prison, guards were expected to work, eat, and sleep on site. The prisoners were kept on the second floor, and with the extreme hardening of the prison, anybody trying to fight their way out would have to fight their way through all of the guards currently assigned to the prison.

Before Kirche and Louise could begin making their way upstairs, there was a great clamor from behind them, and they were overtaken by a group of five people. Three of them were guards that they had already passed, while the fourth member of the group looked to be a high ranking officer. Accompanying the officer was a man dressed in civilian clothes who appeared to be an aide of some kind.

As the group swept by, the man who had recently commented on Louise's eating habits turned to address them. "You two should come with us. Something's really lit a fire under the Warden, he wants everybody gathered up in the high security wing."

Louise fought down another wave of panic. This was definitely not part of the plan. She looked at Kirche, trying to read the other girl's emotions despite the unfamiliar face she was curently wearing. Kirche gave her a resigned grin, and shrugged.

"Guess we better follow them." She said. "Duty calls."

Course of action decided, the pair followed the warden's group through the twists and turns of the prison. As they did, more guards seemed to materialize out of the walls to join their group. By the time the warden knocked on the door leading to the stairway to the second floor, twelve people were trailing obediently behind him.

"State your business-" The guard at the door said, before he saw the group before him and paused in shock. "Boss, what the hell-"

"Stow it, Tereul." The warden ordered. "This is an emergency, I want everybody gathered in the high security wing."

As the group made their way up the stairs, Louise was once again dismayed to see the formidable defenses arrayed against anybody trying to get in-or out-without permission. She hoped Kirche was coming up with something, because her familiar's plan was definitely shot now.

The group of guards made their way up the stairs and turned left to proceed to the high security area of the prison. Of course, no area of the prison was particularly insecure, but the high security area had been given extra fortification to prevent the most dangerous criminals from escaping. Finally, the group made its way past the last of these defenses and assembled in a large room at the heart of the high security wing. With the entrance to her back, Louise could see two hallways leading out of the room to her right. She could just barely make out the first cell in each hallway-frankly, with the level of reinforcement that was put into each individual cell, she thought the security around the rest of the building was total overkill.

"Men," the warden spoke, quieting the murmuring that had been building up in the crowd, "we have credible information leading us to believe that someone is attempting a prison break tonight. Accordingly, we will be on lockdown in the high security wing until further notice. Nobody goes in, and nobody goes out, until the threat is passed."

A storm of protests arose from the group, especially from those who had been about to go off shift. The warden shouted them all down, gesturing for silence.

"Hey, hey, this isn't so bad. Everybody here is going to be drawing overtime pay for the duration." He said, which seemed to lift the mood of the crowd. "Besides, none of you wants to be the schmuck responsible when Osmond the Blade escaped from Genoa Prison, do you?"

The warden gestured towards one of the hallways lined with cells. "That's why we'll be staying right here until the royal guards come to collect that Germanian bastard for execution."

The warden paused, before gesturing to his aide. The aide responded by scrabbling through his messenger bag for a moment before withdrawing a small scroll and handing it to the warden. Unrolling the scroll, he spoke to the men once more.

"There is one more thing." He paused, before looking at his aide and raising an eyebrow. The aide nodded confidently in response. "The enemy has some kind of exotic disguise magic, so to make sure everybody is who they appear, I'm going to have to punch you all in the face, one by one."

Another storm of protests arose from the group, this time much more severe. One loudmouth even got up the courage to argue with the warden directly. "Come on, boss, now you're just having us on. This is about the coffee thing last week, isn't it?"

"I assure you, I'm quite serious." The warden replied, fixing the man with a glare. "And for that little outburst, Aligier, you get to go first. Step forward, please."

"You can't be serious," the loudmouth, now identified as Aligier, complained. Even as he protested, he moved forward automatically-the warden had a pretty strong force of pesonality. "Hey, if this disguise magic is so good, how do I know you're really Warden Boudet and not just some guy who wants to punch me in the face?"

"Hmm, despite your insubordination, you actually have a point." Warden Boudet replied. "I suppose I shouldn't give any order I wouldn't follow myself. Okay, Aligier, you can take a swing at me first."

"Hehe, really?" Aligier asked, hesitant. Standing up close, it was hard not to be intimidated by the warden. The man had risen to prominence in the Germanic wars, winning a fist full of metals before an injury had cut short his military career. Though he still walked with a limp, he was quite solidly built, and towered over the young guard. The warden had been running Genoa Prison for the last ten years, and regarded it an almost unseemly level of possessiveness. If punching his guards in the face was what was required to keep interlopers out of his prison, then that was what he would do.

"Well, get on with it," the warden said, impatiently. "You should enjoy this moment, it's not likely to happen again."

Taking heart at his superior's words, Aligier formed a fist and launched a haymaker at the other man. The warden took it on the chin and stumbled back a couple steps, rubbing his jaw contemplatively. He then took a stride forward and caught Aligier with a straight right to the face, sending the younger man flying backward to crash on the ground with a clatter of armor.

"All right then," the warden said, cracking his knuckles. "Line up and take your beatings."

Louise watched the entire exchange between the warden and his underlings in a state of panic. Fortunately, she and Kirche were able to drift to the end of the line of guards closest to the hallway containing Osmond, and farthest from where the warden was laying in to his subordinates. The warden had punched his way through five guards and was showing no signs of slowing down when Louise began to form the inklings of a plan. Feigning another bout of nausea, she leaned over, clutching her stomach for a second, before letting her right hand slip under her armor and retrieve her hidden wand.

Whispering the words of a spell, she waited until the warden approached the next man in line before acting. Yanking Kirche away from the guard on her other side, Louise pointed at her target and released her fireball spell just as the warden's fist struck home.

Of course, Louise's spell did not produce a fireball. However, it did produce a sizable explosion between the two infiltrators and the rest of the guards. Whether because her emotions were running high or because of her poor control over her magic, the explosion was actually rather larger than she intended. Louise and Kirche were flung against the wall of the room, and with two puffs of smoke two girls in poorly fitting armor stood where two guards had been.

Fortunately, the real prison guards were reeling in surprise from the sudden mayhem unleashed in their midst, and Louise was able to grab Kirche by the elbow and lead her down the hallway to their target. All the while, the Germanian girl kept up a steady stream of invective.

"Zero, what the hell were you thinking? You could have blown us both up! And how are we going to fight our way through all those guards? Fireball!" The last word was shouted over her shoulder as she made a wand gesture back towards the mouth of the corridor, sending a ball of flame streaking towards the mouth of the hallway. The guard that had started to follow them down the hallway leapt back and out of the way.

"What was I supposed to do? You saw how that maniac was acting, we were going to be found out for sure." Louise responded angrily. "By acting first, at least I was able to catch them by surprise."

"Whatever," Kirche responded, clearly not placated by the explanation. She let the matter drop for the moment when they reached the only occupied cell in the hallway. "Oh, what an honor to finally meet Osmond the Blade! I know we haven't met, but I feel like I already know you so well from the songs..."

A weak chuckle came from the figure sprawled out on the floor of the cell. "Always nice to meet a fan. Do you think we could take this little get together somewhere a little more comfortable?"

"Of course!" Kirche announced. "I am Kirche the Ardent, my passion won't be stopped by the bars of a prison cell! Louise, make yourself useful with those explosions for once and cover me."

Growling, Louise took out her anger on the prison, aiming another fireball spell down the hall. Again the spell produced no fire, but the explosion did happen where she wanted it, at the mouth of the hallway. The spell dug a crater into the floor and sent the two approaching soldiers flying back. She could probably have hit the soldiers with her spell, but she still clung to the faint hope of getting out of this situation without any blood on her hands.

Seeing that the hallway was quiet for the moment, Louise took a glance over at her companion. Kirce was crouched near the bars of the prison cell, a thin line of fire reaching out from her wand to touch the bars of the cell. The fire was small, but intense-Louise could feel the heat radiating off of it from a few feet away. Despite that, the reinforcement on the bars was holding steady. The bars didn't look like they had been damaged at all by Kirche's efforts.

"Damn it!" The redhead swore, cutting off her spell. "This is ridiculous! I've cut through solid iron with that spell like it's nothing but air. How can it be..."

She trailed off, as her eye was caught by something down the hall. Suddenly animated again, Kirche jumped up and stood next to Louise.

"Zero! Switch off!" She ordered, sending a stream of fire down the hallway to discourage the guards from getting any ideas.

"What? None of my spells work-" Louise protested, but was cut off.

"Don't you see that crater down there? You're doing something that breaks down the reinforcement." Kirche explained. "Now go blast us an entrance to that damn prison cell."

Frowning, Louise complied. Gesturing at Osmond, she waited for him to get clear of the blast area. He complied, dragging himself across the floor despite what seemed to be some very serious injuries. This time, Louise directed her fireball at the bar on the far right hand side of the cell, away from the man trapped inside. The explosion took out not only that bar, but also the two next to it. It also blasted a small hole in the wall separating Osmond's cell from the next one over.

"Haha, perfect!" Kirche crowed, then ducked as an arrow flew overhead. "And just in time! Come on Zero, let's get into the cell."

Louise followed Kirche into the cell, taking in the room at a glance. It wasn't nearly as squalid as she had anticipated, although on second thought it made sense. The prison had been designed to contain high end nobles, after all, and even in prison nobles were entitled to certain comforts. There was a narrow bed attached to one wall of the cell, and a bookshelf with some provided reading material sat next to it. A small window over the head of the bed provided a view of the two moons outside. Even with three of them inside, the room did not feel cramped. It could have been a room at a moderately high end hotel, except for the bars on the window and the arrows streaming past outside.

Once the three of them were in the cell, Kirche turned and waved her wand at the entrance. A curtain of fire drew down over the width of the entrance, preventing any of the guards from following them inside.

"Terrific, Zerbst, now all three of us are trapped." Louise said, glaring at her rival. "What are we supposed to do now? There's no way we can get out like we planned!"

"Aha, that's why you should always have a backup plan!" Kirche announced, drawing a whistle from between her breasts and holding it aloft triumphantly. "This is a special whistle, audible only to creatures with enhanced hearing... like wind dragons. Tabitha gave it to me so I could call for help. I thought I might have to cut out the bars to the window, but now you can just blast an exit open for us!"

Louise stared at the other girl, impressed. "I have to admit, Kirche, I'm impressed. Maybe there's more to you than a nice rack after all."

"I might not have scored at the top of the class like you, Louise, but I'm no dummy." Kirche smiled, then arched her back, putting herself on display. "They are nice though, aren't they?"

"Gah!" Turning, Louise focused her anger into her spell, directing yet another fireball at the wall in front of her. This produced the most impressive explosion yet, sending masonry flying out to rain down on the street below. The hole left behind was broader than Louise's doorway back at the Academy. Smiling triumphantly, Louise strode forward to take a look outside, before jumping back to avoid a hail of arrows.

"There must be half the city guard out there!" She shouted. "This just keeps getting worse and worse."

"Don't worry," Kirche reassured her, before drawing the whistle to her lips and blowing. No sound came out, or at least none that was audible to the humans in the room. "Tabitha is an excellent wind mage, arrows are no problem to someone like her. We'll definitely be able to get away on Sylpheed."

"And go where?" Louise asked, frustrated. "It's not like there are a lot of people who have wind dragons available to help them break out of prison.

"Hmm... good point." Kirche said. "I'll think of something. What is going on out there?"

The Germanian wandered closer to the hole in the wall to take a peek outside. Even though she only exposed her head, she had to duck back quickly to avoid a storm of arrows.

"Zero, your familiar is out there with the guy who looks like he's in charge. What in the Founder's name is she doing?"

Before Louise could say anything in reply, Sakura's voice came floating in from the outside. "Master! It's ok, I'm here with reinforcements! You can stop helping Zerbst now!"

Kirche stared at Louise with a gobsmacked look on her face. Louise, also in shock, could do nothing but stare back at her.

"Everybody knows Zerbst is the mastermind! Just help capture her now!" Sakura continued, breaking the silence between them and snapping Kirche out of her shock.

"Treachery!" Kirche shrieked, sending a fireball at Louise.

Louise jumped out of the way, and replied with another explosive spell. Kirche stepped to the side, leaving Louise's spell to blast a head sized hole in the wall of the prison. She returned fire with a spell Louise had never seen before, sending three twisting tendrils of flame at the pink haired girl. She was able to dodge out of the way of two of them, but the third caught her full across the leg and send Louise tumbling to the floor, her wand flying out of her hand. Louise stared up at Kirche in shock.

Kirche strode towards her fallen foe confidently, before staggering as an arrow seemed to sprout from her left arm. An archer had managed to make an incredible shot through the last hole Louise had created. Unfortunately, the injury seemed to do little to dampen her fighting spirit. Even more unfortunately for Louise, the Germanian was right handed.

"Feh, those bastards have some nerve, interrupting a fight between two nobles." Kirche said, sneering. "Even if only one of us can perform magic."

Kirche called up her magic once more, beginning a complex incantation and initiating a series of wand movements that Louise had never seen before. A small lick of flame sprouted into existence at her feet, circling the girl's ankles. Soon the flame spread, covering her body in a whirlwind of fire. Though the fire was intense enough to raise the heat of the cell to an uncomfortable level, Kirche herself remained unharmed by the flames. Spell complete, the girl marched over to the hole in the wall.

"Wait your turn, bastards! I'll show you soon enough what it means to fight a Zerbst!" Kirche taunted the soldiers below, ignoring the many arrows sent her way. Each arrow that made contact with the flames surrounding her was tossed off course, landing on the floor as little more than a pile of ash and a melted lump of metal. Finished surveying the scene outside, Kirche turned back to Louise.

"Surprised, Zero?" Kirche asked, smirking. The fire surrounding her body caused her red hair to float off of her shoulders. It was hard to tell where her hair ended and the flames began. "Before sending me off to Tristain mother insisted I learn some spells that weren't really appropriate for use in the schoolyard. Here, let me show you one more..."

Before Kirche could begin her spell, there was a final shout from the courtyard below. "Master! This is a time of desperation! Do something!"

Hearing her familiar's words, Louise finally remembered the ceramic bauble that her familiar had given her to break in case things got desperate. The current situation definitely qualified. Fishing the sphere out of her pocket, she wasted no time before smashing it on the ground. Kirche watched with some curiosity and apprehension-Louise's familiar had already been the source of too many surprises-but soon started chuckling when nothing happened.

"Looks like you're a zero to the end." She said, bringing her wand to bear. "Goodbye, Louise-ack!"

Suddenly, the flames surrounding Kirche vanished, snuffed out like a candle. The Germanian girl brought both hands to her throat, and seemed to be having trouble breathing. Louise scrambled to her feet to approach the girl, but before she could move she was lifted off her feet by an incredibly strong gust of wind. She was thrown against the bars of the cell with tremendous force, and all of her senses went fuzzy as her head hit something solid.

Dimly, she could see the enormous shape of a dragon, hovering outside of the hole in the wall. She saw Kirche stagger out of the cell onto the dragon's back, and she saw the huge form of Osmond the Blade float through the air and out of the prison. After that, she saw no more, as the world went black around her.

ooOoo

Louise awoke with a start, looking around wildly before realizing that she was had been sleeping on her own four poster bed. Checking herself over, she found her arms and legs completely unblemished despite everything she remembered about the night before. She was wondering if it had all been some kind of strange dream when a voice broke her out of her thoughts.

"Good morning, Louise!" Sakura said, giving Louise a cheerful wave before leaning back in her chair and taking another bite out of the apple she was snacking on. "I took care of that nasty bump on the head and cleaned up your burns. You should be careful when you're playing with fire mages."

Louise snorted, then leaned over to look underneath her bed. Finding nothing, she took a careful look around the room.

"Ne, what are you looking for?" Sakura asked, waving her hand at the door. "Don't worry, this conversation will be private."

"I'm trying to find the body of the doctor you dragged up here to perform a healing," Louise said, giving Sakura a sour look.

"Maa, maa, I'm hurt." Sakura replied. "Didn't I tell you I'm a fully trained medic?"

"You did," Louise said, "you also told me you're a soldier. But what kind of soldier knows how to rob a store and frame somebody else for the crime? What kind of medic can plan a prison break on a moment's notice? Who are you, really?"

"Well, I'm a medic ninja," Sakura replied, putting an emphasis on the last word. "All ninja are trained to perform all types of mission-escort missions, information gathering, item retrieval, sabotage, kidnapping, assassination, or whatever."

Louise's eyes had grown progressively wider as Sakura listed off each mission type, but she was really sent into shock by the last one. "Assassination! You haven't... since you've been here, have you?"

"No, not really." Sakura replied, scratching the back of her neck.

"What do you mean, not really?" Louise asked.

"Well, it looked like Kirche was in pretty bad shape, but the gas I gave you should have killed her right away." Sakura shook her head. "Surviving that long, she probably made it out ok in the end. That flame cloak must have blocked the effect."

Sakura paused, thinking. "That flame cloak was pretty neat, she must have really been holding back in class, ne?"

Louise, who had listened in stunned silence to Sakura's explanation, suddenly realized what she had done. "Gas? You gave me poison gas?"

"No, no, don't be ridiculous." Sakura replied, shaking her head. "The gas I gave you was perfectly harmless. And so was the formula I put on Kirche's pastries two nights ago at dinner. Together, though..."

"You, you planned this whole thing?" Louise asked, shocked.

"I was just trying to be helpful then by helping you destroy your enemies," Sakura said. "But once I figured out your plan last night, it seemed like a nice addition."

"My... plan." Louise said, uncertain.

"Yes, tipping off the city watch and putting all of the blame on Zerbst." Sakura said, nodding happily. "Even though she got away, it still worked out all right. You're a hero right now, you know."

"That wasn't my plan!" Louise shouted. "Why would you think that was my plan?"

"What? But outside the prison, you gave me a look." Sakura said, then demonstrated. She looked intently at Louise, then slid her eyes off to the side, then back to Louise. Breaking eye contact with a grin, she sat back in her chair. "That was totally a 'let's betray our allies for our mutual advantage' look."

"That's ridiculous!" Louise shouted, flabbergasted. "I don't even have a... that kind of look."

"Oh." Sakura took a bite out of her apple and thought for a moment. "I guess I came up with the whole plan on my own then. Wow, I'm more devious than I thought."

"How could you do something like that? How could you betray somebody who was counting on us?" Louise asked, upset.

"Well, you can't really betray somebody that doesn't trust you." Sakura responded. Seeing that this explanation did little to placate Louise, she sighed. "Look, something like this had to happen eventually, you know."

"Why?" Louise asked.

"Blackmail's not just a one time thing. They keep pulling you in deeper and deeper, using each piece of blackmail to generate more, until there's no way out." Sakura said, looking pityingly at Louise. "That's how the game is played. The only escape is to contain the information as soon as possible."

Sakura's tone of voice indicated exactly what she would prefer to do to "contain" sensitive information. Louise frowned and looked down at her lap. "This whole thing... it seems like we've been doing the wrong thing an awful lot."

"What, no way!" Sakura said. "This worked out great. Now Kirche is a wanted criminal, so nobody will believe anything she says about you. Plus everybody thinks you tried to stop a couple of badass mages from breaking into Genoa Prison. I think you're even in line for some kind of reward."

"That's not what I mean." Louise said, frowning. "It seems like you've been acting... evil."

Louise had been reeling ever since she heard about the injuries done to Kirche. To discover that her familiar had maneuvered her into a position where she nearly killed her... well, not friend exactly, but definitely a friendly rival... it was shocking. Worse, she knew that if she could live that moment all over again, even knowing what was in the ceramic sphere, she couldn't think of anything she would have done differently. She remembered the terror she had felt, seeing the flames surrounding Kirche and staring down the tip of her wand. She remembered thinking that she would do anything just to live out the day. And she knew that if it came down to killing Kirche or dying herself, she would have chosen to kill.

Even if it was totally somebody else's fault that she was in that situation to begin with, it was still an unsettling thing to learn about herself. The fact that her familiar seemed to treat that kind of decision like she was choosing how to style her hair, that was also disturbing.

"Whoa, let's not get insulting here, Master." Sakura said, frowning. A knife seemed to materialize in her right hand and Sakura began spinning it from finger to finger without appearing to give it any conscious thought. Louise didn't think she meant it as a threat-Sakura had certainly shown that she was capable of being overtly threatening if she wanted to. On the other hand, the reminder that she was armed and quite capable of violence was unsettling. Trying to figure out her familiar just seemed to get more difficult the more she learned about her.

"I've been a pretty good familiar, you know." Sakura continued, as the knife vanished off to... somewhere. "You summoned me a week ago and now you have a closet full of expensive reagents, and your number one enemy is a wanted fugitive. Plus, now that I've seen a real magical battle, I can guarantee that as long as you're working with me nobody's going to harm you. I even have some ideas for fixing your magic problem!"

"But now my schoolyard rival seriously wants to kill me!" Louise said, frustrated. "And that poor innocent shopkeeper is on the run too. Not to mention Tabitha, I didn't have anything against her."

"Tsch, Louise, you have some growing up to do." Sakura said, sounding more disappointed than angry. "You're a noble, right? That means you're going to have to make life or death decisions some day. You can't talk all the time about how you want sausage and then complain when a pig gets hurt."

"People aren't pigs!" Louise shouted, then slumped down as the fight drained out of her. "Look, I just don't want to talk to you right now, ok?"

"Ok," Sakura said, finishing her apple and tossing away the core, "but we do need to get our stories straight before your meeting with the headmaster."

ooOoo

The meeting in the headmaster's office had the air of a formal hearing. Old Osmond sat at the center of a large table, flanked to his left by Professor Colbert and to his right by Inspector Cheron, Tristania's foremost detective. Madame Longueville, the headmaster's secretary, sat off to the side at a small desk, taking notes. Sakura and Louise stood in front of the table, answering the questions posed to them by the investigators.

Inspector Cheron was a short man, with a portly figure had clearly built up as he spent the last several years behind a desk. However, while he cut something of a comical figure in his too-small uniform, one look into his eyes revealed a sharp intelligence suggesting that this was not a man to be underestimated. He was an active speaker, frequently leaning backwards and forwards and gesturing with his hands when he made a point.

The inspector began by walking Louise step by step through the prison break itself, obviously keen to avoid any repetition of such a disaster. She started by describing the Zerbst family heirloom that Kirche had used to disguise the two of them, and then took him through the infiltration until she finished by describing her magical duel with Kirche-explaining how she had been fortunate to recover her wand at the last second and somehow produce a burst of magic that had disrupted the Germanian's fire spell. Once she had finished with that, they turned to the question of how Louise had gotten involved in the enterprise to begin with.

"She threatened me." Louise said quietly, looking down on the floor. "She said that if I didn't do what she said, she'd hurt my familiar."

Sakura was sure to look properly meek as the three investigators turned their attention to her. Allowing a small quaver to affect her voice, she spoke for the first time at the hearing. "I really thought she was going to burn me to ash. It was... terrifying."

Sakura allowed some unshed tears to gather in her eyes, but held back from actually crying. No need to risk looking too melodramatic at this point.

"But why did she want you involved at all?" Inspector Cheron asked, getting to the heart of the matter. "Why not stick with just her friends?"

"Well," Louise said, glancing over at her teachers before meeting Inspector Cheron's gaze. "You've heard about my... troubles with magic?"

"Yes," he replied, "I spoke with your instructors earlier today."

"Kirche said that she saw one of my explosions destroy a reinforced earth construct." Louise said. "She said she needed me so she could blast her way out of the prison if she had to."

Louise paused for a moment, before asking a question in an agitated voice. "How could she do such a thing? Kirche was always a little wild, but I never imagined she could do something like this!"

"It's hard for healthy people to understand the criminal mind," the inspector said, reassuringly. "Sometimes somebody you thought you knew turns out to be capable of depraved behavior that you can barely comprehend."

Sakura fought back a sudden inexplicable urge to sneeze.

"What really surprises me out of this is Tabitha's participation." Professor Colbert said, leaning forward. "Kirche was always a little crazy, but Tabitha... did she say why she was going along with Kirche?"

Louise thought for a moment, then shook her head. "She doesn't talk much. But I remember she always seemed to follow Kirche around. I don't know if she really had any other friends."

"Led astray by the one she trusted," the inspector shook his head, "it's a sad story that I've seen too many times to count. I think I have all the information I need. If nobody has any other questions, I think we can end this meeting."

The others agreed, and Miss Longueville put away her pen and stopped taking notes. Inspector Cheron stood up and gave Louise a reassuring smile.

"Miss Valliere, I know you're probably confused about why your classmates would treat you like they did. But I want you to remember, you did the right thing. You were very brave, trying to foil the plans of a pair of triangle class mages by yourself." He smiled at her. "Why, if it weren't for you, we might not have known who was behind the escape at all. I'll make sure that the Court hears about your actions. I know you weren't thinking about rewards when you did what you did, but Tristain is a country that tries to reward people for doing the right thing."

With that, the inspector made his farewells and departed, collecting the notes from the meeting from Miss Longueville as he left. Louise hesitated for a moment before making eye contact with the headmaster.

"Please, Headmaster, may I ask you for a favor?" She asked.

"Eh?" Old Osmond started, as if he had just woken up. "Oh, of course, you should know we're always happy to help the Valliere family. Especially after something like last night."

"Well..." Louise said, "I was wondering if there's a way to send my familiar home?"

"Of course, we can even arrange for an airship to pick you up on top of the Wind Tower." The headmaster said, smiling.

"Headmaster, I don't think that would work," Sakura said, pressing her fingers together nervously. "At home, we only have one moon. I think you would have to use magic to get me back there."

"One moon? How odd." The headmaster said, stroking his beard. "Well, Summon Servant is a one way spell... but people come up with new spells all the time, eh? Colbert, could you have somebody look into it?"

"Of course, headmaster." Colbert replied. "You know, I've been doing some research about human familiars... they're very rare. Miss Valliere, may I take a look at the runes on your familiar's hand?"

Louise looked at Sakura, who shrugged and walked forward, displaying the back of her left hand to Colbert. He carefully copied the runes down on a sheet of paper, and then flipped through some notes that he had brought with him.

"Hmm... it's hard to say for sure. Miss... um" he trailed off, realizing he had never gotten Sakura's name.

"Sakura. Haruno Sakura." Sakra politely informed him.

"Miss Haruno, have you tried using any weapons since you've been here?" He asked.

"Weapons? Like to hurt somebody?" She asked, doing her best to sound surprised and offended. "No, of course not. Back home I'm training to be a doctor, and our most sacred vow is 'first, do no harm.' To attack somebody with a weapon... that would go against my most deeply held moral values."

"Oh, well... never mind." Colbert said. "I'll just have to do a little more research. It will be easier now that I have a copy of the runes on your hand."

"But... do you think you'll be able to send me home?" Sakura asked.

"I'll definitely work on it." Colbert replied. "Your friends must be worried sick, with you just disappearing into another world like that."

"Yes," Sakura said, genuine pain entering her voice as she realized she hadn't really thought about how her friends would react to her disappearance. "Yes, they probably are."

ooOoo

Kirche had once thought that her body burned inside with the passion she associated with the fire element. She now knew that she had been absolutely wrong in that belief. Now she knew what it felt like truly to be burned from the inside, as each breath sent an agonizing burning sensation sweeping through her lungs as she inhaled and again as she exhaled. She also knew what a truly burning emotion felt like thanks to the rage that coursed through her at the thought of Louise de la Valliere and her accursed "familiar." The day and night that had passed since the disastrous prison break had done little to douse either of the fires that burned within her.

"She must have planned it the whole time!" Kirche continued her ongoing rant about the behavior, moral character, talent, and looks of the Valliere family in general and Louise in particular, as she had been doing for most of the day. She paused as her body was wracked by a series of coughs. Steadfastly ignoring the blood in her hand and the pain that flared up whenever she spoke, she completed her thought. "She let me overhear what she wanted me to hear. I thought I was calling the shots, and the whole time she was leading me around by the nose!"

Kirche was sitting in front of a campfire that she was sharing with her friend Tabitha. Blood was beginning to soak through the bandage wrapped around her upper arm where she had been struck by an arrow, adding a rather disheartening touch on top of her generally disheveled appearance. Tabitha looked as if she had just left class at the academy-she even still had her nose buried in a book.

The two of them were in a forest clearing, although Kirche had no idea where. Her memory of their last flight was a patchy haze of blackouts mixed with confusing movement through a dark night, all overlaid with the constant sensation of pain. Osmond the Blade had proven surprisingly useful. Once he was given some food and some basic first aid, he was able to help them set up a reasonably comfortable camp... wherever they were. The man was old, but he hadn't forgotten any of his woodcraft. At the moment he was prowling around the edges of the campsite while the girls talked.

"And that familiar of hers! So helpful, so friendly... pah!" Kirche exclaimed, before spitting a bright red wad of phlegm and blood into the fire. "I bet they were planning on doing this to us since the summoning ceremony."

"Too complicated." Tabitha replied, not looking up from her book.

"Maybe, but they sure fooled us, didn't they! Gah, fooled by the Zero... and her familiar." Kirche said, shaking her head. "Familiar my foot! She was a plant from the government, just looking to discredit innocent foreign mages."

"Not a royal agent," Tabitha said, shaking her head.

"What then? Maybe she-" Kirche said, before pausing to clear her throat. This turned into another coughing fit, and when she spoke once more her voice was much subdued. "Maybe she was hired by the Valliere family... but where would they find an unknown mage of that caliber? That disguise spell wasn't just some parlor trick."

"Not a mage." Tabitha replied.

"Seriously? What is she then?" Kirche asked, skeptical.

Tabitha just shrugged, still not looking up from her book.

Kirche was distracted from her line of thought when Osmond drew his sword and charged across the clearing.

"Hah, only a great fool tries to sneak up on Osmond the Blade!" Osmond called out, his eyes fixed on something in the forest that Kirche couldn't see. "Have at you, varlet... ack!"

Osmond's momentum came to a sudden halt as a great hand rose up from the ground and seized him in its grasp. The hand seemed to be made of dirt, and although the outer edges of it were already crumbling away, the great bulk of it held Osmond tight.

Kirche drew her wand and eyed the forest warily. Next to her, Tabitha held her staff at the ready. Both girls instantly took aim at the cloaked figure that stepped into the clearing. The interloper was not phased by their actions, though, letting out a quiet chuckle.

"You know, for two infamous criminals, you girls are pretty high strung. I can see I'm going to have my work cut out for me."

ooOoo 


	6. Chapter Five

AN: Updated with some minor tweaks.

Thanks again for the reviews.

ooOoo

Sakura sat alone in front of the desk in Louise's room, staring at the object in her hands. She was holding the vial containing the slightly yellow-tinted liquid that she had intended to give to Kankuro, "curing" his poisoning and further binding together the alliance between Sand and Leaf. When she had vanished from the heart of Sunagakure, the mission must have been thrown into a shambles. Her teammates were in danger, either from her absence or from whatever heroics they engaged in to try to rescue her from whoever they decided was responsible for her disappearance. And yet, until Colbert had mentioned her friends during their meeting a week ago, she hadn't been worrying about her teammates at all.

It wasn't that unusual, as all shinobi were well trained in emotional suppression techniques that allowed them to function despite their fears for others-Shinobi Rule Twenty Five, though not always complied with, stated that a shinobi must kill their heart and feel no emotion-but Sakura hadn't been suppressing her emotions. She just hadn't been feeling them.

Sakura had been taught, and firmly believed, that while shinobi who break the rules are trash, those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash. Despite that, while she could remember the bare facts of her relationship with her friends easily enough, in order to feel any real concern for them at all she had to focus on the vial in her hands, or the headband that she had placed on the desk. She had been doing so every night since she had realized her emotions were so off kilter.

That wasn't the worst problem, though. Sakura braced herself and picked up the kunai that was lying on the desk next to her forehead protector. Immediately all of her worries fell away as the runes on her left hand lit up. Why was she so fixated on some stupid vial? Her body felt light as a feather, and Sakura knew that with this power nobody in Tristain could stand before her. With this power she could place Louise on the throne of the country, or the continent. She could protect all of her friends-

With a snarl, Sakura drove the kunai into the desk, striking with such force that it was driven in all the way to the ring on the end. Her friends were in Konoha! What she had here in Tristain were assets, and potential assets. Tools to be used and discarded as needed to get her closer to home. Admittedly, spending time around Louise wasn't entirely unpleasant, but the bottom line was that the girl was not a Konoha shinobi. If she wasn't so useful in securing the cooperation of the school's magical researchers, Sakura would have been long gone by now.

Sakura stared warily at the now-dormant runes on her hand as the last of the euphoric feeling left her body. She had conducted some tests over the past week under the cover of darkness and confirmed that the feeling of power was not just a mirage. The runes boosted her non-enhanced strength and speed considerably. She suspected that they boosted her chakra-enhanced strength as well, although it was difficult to find a practical method for testing the matter-somebody might be roused to investigate if one of the local mountains went missing.

No ninja would turn down a free power-up, but a power-up that induced dangerous levels of overconfidence and manipulated her emotions so easily, that was hardly free. Sakura was just grateful that she was able to do enough damage with her bare hands that she didn't really need to use kunai that often.

With a sigh, she gathered up her headband and put her mementos away before pulling a magical reference book down from the shelf. She just had to remember that she was doing everything that she could to get back home as soon as possible. The cold hard fact was that worrying about her friends wouldn't do anything to bring her home quicker.

Sakura was still reading when the door opened and Louise stomped into the room. Apparently it had been another tough day of attempted practical schoolwork.

"Louise, finally. I've been wanting to talk to you about your magic," Sakura said, smiling. "Since you've tried the four elements and none of them worked, it's obvious that we need to try..."

ooOoo

"Lightning?" Professor Colbert asked, raising an eyebrow.

Professor Colbert's office was a comfortably cluttered space. His desk was covered with paperwork, while the shelves lining the walls were filled with an array of gadgets and pieces of gadgets. There was just enough room in his clutter for his desk, which he was currently sitting behind, and the two visitor's chairs currently occupied by Sakura and Louise.

"Yes, Professor," Louise spoke first, as custom demanded. "My familiar has an idea."

At Louise's gesture, Sakura began speaking, pressing her fingers together nervously as she did so. "Well, Professor, where I come from we don't have mages, but we do speak of the elements. Fire, earth, wind, water, and lightning."

"And what does that have to do with anything?" Colbert asked, obviously skeptical. "Lightning is created by wind spells, everybody knows that."

"Yes," Sakura acknowledged, "but there are earth spells that start fires, and water spells that move earth around... they are still separate elements."

"Perhaps," Colbert said, shaking his head. "But in six thousand years there has never been a mage able to use lightning as an element."

"I've been reading some of my master's textbooks, to try and help her with her magic." Sakura said, still looking down at her hands. "They aren't really clear on how magic works, but they say that the mage's power is drawn from the environment or has to resonate with nature somehow. I was thinking, air is always around us, earth is always there, there's usually at least some moisture in the air, and for fire, there's always some warmth around. But lightning..."

"I see." Colbert said, sounding a little more interested. "Since nobody is out there trying to perform their first spell during a lightning storm, nobody would ever discover that their soul resonated with this 'lightning' element."

"Exactly!" Sakura said, excited. "But we don't know how to find enough lightning ourselves, we thought you could help."

"Maybe," Colbert said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "But how would you cast a 'lightning' spell, Louise? I've never heard of such a thing."

"The Levitation spell is the same for every mage, it just feels different depending on your element," Louise replied. "Even if it isn't the best way to master the element... at least I might finally get something to happen that isn't an explosion."

"Hmm... I still think this is unlikely to work." Colbert cautioned them. "But, Louise, you have tried everything else, so you might as well. Also, this will give me a chance to test out one of my devices."

Professor Colbert rose and led them out of his office down to his workshop. The workshop was a large room, filled with devices that Sakura could not even begin to guess the purpose of. Near the back, a sheet covered some particularly large invention. Colbert walked them to the back of the room and then flung the sheet back, revealing... something. It stood nearly ten feet tall-the base was several feet around, and contained a mish mash of parts and connections that made no sense at all to Sakura. A steel pole was attached to the base that rose up into the air and was topped by what initially looked like a copper sphere, but on closer inspection could be seen as a series of copper hoops that did not quite touch each other.

"What in the Founder's name is that?" Louise asked, taking the words out of Sakura's mouth.

"A colleague of mind picked this up from Rub' al Khali from the famous inventor Te'sla. When a bolt of lightning strikes here," Colbert explained, indicating a small lightning rod extending from the base, "it is magnified internally somehow and results in a tremendous lightning discharge from the top. Or so he claims."

Colbert shook his head. "Of course, I can't produce lightning on demand, and I haven't been able to talk Professor Kaita into helping me out yet, but I'm sure for you, Ms. Valliere..."

They weren't able to get the device properly set up outside until early evening the next day. A crowd of students gathered around to see Louise the Zero, clad in chainmail of all things, standing next to the odd looking device. Colbert shooed them back to a safe distance before he made his way over to talk to Kaita. Sakura was standing next to Louise, trying to calm her case of last minute jitters.

"Remember, Louise, a big part of magic is willpower." Sakura said. "You have to believe in yourself, one hundred percent!"

"I do, I do." Louise said, before glancing nervously back at the lightning machine. "It's just, this thing seems more intimidating all set up and ready to go like this."

"Relax, Louise, you'll be fine." Sakura said, trying to reassure her master. "With that chain mail on you could take a direct hit from a lightning bolt no problem, so just remember to concentrate on the spell."

Colbert finished his conversation with Kaita and gestured to Sakura that they were ready to begin. With a parting wave she left her master's side and made her way over to the trench that had been dug into the ground about fifty feet away. Sakura jumped down into the trench and turned to look back at Louise. Next to her, Colbert donned a pair of dark glasses to watch the experiment, and Kaita readied his wand. Hesitating before he cast the spell, he turned to Sakura.

"Getting your master's hopes up like this is cruel, you know." Kaita said, shaking his head. "There's no way she will succeed."

"You know, people might like you better if you weren't so negative all the time," Sakura replied, before raising her voice in an attempt to bolster Louise's spirits. "All right, let's do this! Begin Operation: Cannot Possibly Fail!"

ooOoo

Some time later, Sakura and Louise walked through the hall together back to their room. Louise's hair was standing straight out from her head, and her dress was rather badly charred. She had a furious expression on her face, and her eyebrow was twitching wildly. She would periodically form her hands into fists as if she was about to attack somebody, before deliberately relaxing her hands by her side once more, only to begin the cycle all over again moments later.

"Come on, master, it could have been much worse." Sakura said, placatingly. "The healer said that he would have Professor Colbert's eardrums patched up in no time."

Louise said nothing as the pair continued to walk down the corridor.

"And Kaita said that he has a backup wand, and once they dig the remains of his primary wand out of his hand, they'll be able to heal him up like new." Sakura continued.

Louise still said nothing as the pair reached her room and went inside.

"And none of the students were permanently hurt, and once it rains there will be a lovely lake-" Sakura said, only to be interrupted as Louise screamed and began to pummel the life out of a pillow.

"Zero! Zero! Zero! Always the Zero!" Louise shouted. "Even after a crazy experiment like that, all I hear is 'what do you expect, it's Louise the Zero'? Aargh!"

Sakura waited for Louise to work off most of her anger on the helpless pillow. When it looked like the other girl had settled down, Sakura sat next to her on the bed.

"You know, Louise," Sakura said, "if you just want to stop being called names that's not so hard to accomplish."

"What do you mean?" Louise asked, too emotionally exhausted to snap at her familiar.

"Well," Sakura said, "when I was younger I was a lot like you. Top student in the class for theory, not so good at the practical stuff. Kids back home didn't like that any more than the kids here, so they used to pick on me quite a bit."

"What, so I'm going to grow up into some big bad ninja?" Louise asked, skeptically.

"Of course not." Sakura said, and smiled. It was not a particularly friendly smile. "You see, there was another girl in my year who was just as quiet and shy as I was, but nobody picked on her. You know why?"

"Why?" Louise asked, clearly interested despite herself.

"Because she was a daughter of the most powerful clan in Konoha. If her father caught wind of anybody making fun of his daughter, he would have made life very uncomfortable." Sakura shook her head. "Oh, nothing overt would happen... but all of a sudden merchants would find it hard to get trade permits, workers would have a hard time finding jobs, and everybody would find out that their little secrets maybe weren't so secret. You know, just enough that people know not to make fun of the Hyuuga."

"You think I should go running to my mother?" Louise asked, incredulous.

"Of course not," Sakura responded. "You've got me!"

"What?" Louise asked.

"To start out we need to find somebody who's almost as unpopular as you." Sakura said in a matter-of-fact fashion.

"Hey!"

"What, you think they pick on you just because you can't do magic?" Sakura asked, rhetorically, before shaking her head. "No, it's because you're arrogant without the skills to back it up, you're personally unpleasant to everybody, and nobody's afraid of you."

"How can you say such things?" Louise asked, outraged.

"Hey, don't worry, we can turn this around. But if you don't acknowledge reality you can't change it." Sakura replied. "Like I said, the trick is to find the right person to make an example of."

"To make-is this what you did, when you had these problems?" Louise asked.

"Pretty much," Sakura replied absently, pulling out a small journal and flipping through it. "But with a little less emphasis on poisoned words and a little bit more, you know, poison."

Ino had maintained her position atop the social hierarchy with her sharp tongue and sharper shinobi skills. The blonde always ranked near the top of the class in the Academy-taught disciplines, but it was her prodigal skill with various chemical concoctions that secured her place as the unchallenged queen bee of her age group. After Ino took Sakura under her wing the two would spend long hours together at the Yamanaka flower shop, which was where Sakura first learned about the broad range of things that ninja families considered to be child's play.

Louise kept quiet as Sakura continued to search through her journal, before pausing as she found the page she was looking for.

"Aha! Besides you, the number one most annoying person in your class is Guiche de Gramont." Sakura said, reading out of her journal. "Son of the famous General Gramont, his family relies on income from several mines on their land, which they operate using their skill at earth magic."

"And I suppose you want to kill his father and destroy his mines?" Louise asked sarcastically.

"Oh, I have such a bloodthirsty master," Sakura said, putting her hands to her cheeks in mock distress before fixing Louise with a serious look. "Don't be ridiculous. Shinobi Rule Twelve says that a ninja must use the force necessary to accomplish the mission, but no more. In this case, all you need to know is that Guiche is courting three women, none of whom know about the others."

"So he's a creep and a pervert." Louise said, snorting. "What does that have to do with getting people to stop calling me names?"

"Oh, Louise," Sakura said, shaking her head, before patting the bed next to herself. "Just sit up and let your big sister Sakura explain the ways of the world."

ooOoo

The next day at class went much like the others. Louise volunteered to participate, her spell caused a terrible explosion, and the class erupted in laughter. Guiche was, as was often the case, the first to speak.

"Once a Zero, always a Zero. Professor, you should stop doing this before we run out of tables to destroy!" He said.

Usually Louise would fire back with some petty insult directed at Guiche, eventually leading both of them to be chastised by the professor for misbehavior. Unfortunately, her insults never seemed to hurt Guiche as much as her nickname hurt her sense of pride, and the boy always seemed willing to taunt her again as soon as the opportunity presented itself. This time, following her familiar's advice, she turned and caught Guiche's gaze with a hard stare.

"Zero, zero, zero. I always seem to hear that from you." She said, sneering. "But who are you to say such things... a dot mage, I guess I should call you Guiche the One?"

"Whatever you do, no matter how many zeroes you add together, you'll never even get to one." Guiche said, shaking his head.

"Oh, but you sell yourself short... you may only be able to command one element, but I know when it comes to women the number is much higher." Louise replied.

"Don't be ridiculous." Guiche responded, beginning to look a little nervous. "My love for Montmorency is as eternal and unchanging as the night sky. Why, if I could reach up into the sky and rearrange-"

"Rearrange the stars, you would spell out Guiche and Katie forever?" Louise finished the statement. "That is what you said last night, isn't it?"

"Don't be ridiculous! I would never-" Guiche began to respond, flustered now.

"Or was it Agnes whose name you would write in the sky? I think that's the name of the third year girl you've been seeing, right?" Louise said, still speaking calmly. "Don't sell yourself short, Guiche-when it comes to love, you're a triangle at least!"

It was at this point that Guiche noticed the rapid approach of his blonde haired girlfriend. When he turned to address her she grabbed him by the front of his cloak and said something to him that Louise couldn't make out, before driving a knee into a very sensitive place and sweeping out of the classroom in a huff. It took a moment for the arrogant young man to gather himself together.

"Look what you've done, Zero! I'd challenge you to a duel if it weren't forbidden!" He shouted.

"Really?" Louise asked quietly, stepping closer to him. "You think your golems are more durable than the walls of Genoa Prison?"

Guiched looked a little green, swallowing nervously as Louise approached to stand well within his personal space. She smiled at him and tilted her head, doing her best to imitate a look she had received a few times from her familiar-the look that said "I'm not threatening you, but if you keep pushing it I might change my mind."

"Maybe, before you start calling names, you should think about if you're starting something that you won't be able to finish, ne?" Louise said, watching with some pride-and some well-hidden surprise-as Guiche shook his head before turning around and walking off with his tail between his legs. Maybe her familiar knew something about how people thought after all.

ooOoo

Sakura had found that she required much less sleep than the average Academy student seemed to prefer. Accordingly, she had taken to wandering the school at odd hours of the night. It gave her something to do and occasionally allowed her to pick up useful tidbits of information. On this particular night both moons were very slender crescents, providing a level of illumination that Sakura associated with her own world, rather than the usual bright nights of Halkeginia.

Sakura was staring at the night sky, trying to cultivate a feeling of homesickness, when she noticed a shadow passing by in front of the moon. The shadow soon resolved into the form of Sylphid, as the wind dragon stopped to hover about fifty feet from the main tower of the castle. Any doubts Sakura may have entertained about what was going on were laid to rest when a massive torrent of flame burst from the dragon's back to impact against the tower wall.

In the light provided by the flame, Sakura could just make out the shape of four figures crouched on the back of the dragon. Sakura was trying to figure out who the fourth person might be when the flames cut off, and an eerie blue glow appeared that connected the dragon and the tower. The blue glow lit up a slightly wider portion of the wall than the fire had heated, and Sakura could see ice starting to form on the outer edges of the glow. The wall was holding up pretty well so far, but she didn't know how many times it could take being heated up and cooled down before it fell apart.

The point was moot, as a giant figure rose up from the ground. It had the shape of a man but none of the features or fine detail, although that may have been a trick of the light. The giant construct drew back its fist and launched a punch at the weakened point on the castle wall, smashing through with ease. The golem crumbled back into dirt as the dragon flew towards the tower wall. Sakura couldn't be sure, but it looked like three figures jumped off the dragon's back into the tower, while another remained behind.

Sakura was beginning to wonder if she was the only person who was up at this hour when a lance of flame struck out at the dragon from one of the adjacent towers. The flame was diverted by a gust of wind, but still scorched a long burn into one of the dragon's wings. It was clear that the dragon was now struggling to hover in place.

The answering gust of wind blew Sakura's hair back from where she was standing, and there was no further attack from the tower. Soon three figures came streaming out of the hole in the wall, leaping onto the back of the dragon to make their escape.

Sakura considered interfering. It would be pretty simple. She would just have to leap out of the window and switch places with the large figure that she assumed must be Osmond the Blade. A quick punch to the back would break the dragon's spine, and then she'd just have to deal with three angry mages while falling through the air. And then she'd have to explain what had happened the next morning.

Sakura shook her head. Having to explain everything... that would be way too troublesome. It wasn't like she was storing any of her personal belongings in the castle vault, anyway.

There was also a small part of her that enjoyed watching a good plan be executed well, even at the expense of her allies. It would be a shame to ruin the results of so much effort so well applied. Sakura smiled as she watched Sylphid labor to escape while loaded down with stolen goods. Some day her master would face Kirche and Tabitha again on the field of battle, and on that day Kirche and Tabitha would die. Until then, she couldn't help but wish them well.

ooOoo

The Headmaster was understandably less sanguine about the robbery. Sakura had made the mistake of mentioning the night's activities to Louise, who had volunteered her as a witness to the faculty, which had led to her participation in the morning's meeting. In addition to her and Louise, the Headmaster had called in Professor Kaita and Professor Colbert. Kaita looked as dour as ever, while Colbert looked somewhat battered.

Just as Colbert was about to speak, the doors to the office burst open and Miss Longueville entered the room. The usually very proper secretary looked somewhat disheveled, whether because of the early morning meeting or the excitement last night.

"Sorry, everybody, I just had to double check the vaults to see what was missing." She said, taking her usual seat at her desk to take notes. "I can report in once we've heard from our eyewitnesses."

Colbert went first, explaining that he had recovered from his earlier injuries and was taking his usual turn at the watch when he saw a burst of flame strike the tower wall. By the time he made his way close enough to interfere the golem had already broken through the wall. He had attacked, but his attack had been countered and returned more quickly than he had anticipated, knocking him out of the fight. From what he saw of the dragon and the skills of the rider he was sure that the school had just been robbed by Tabitha and Sylphid.

Sakura was impressed. The man might play the part of the absent minded inventor, but that fire spell was no joke, and he had attacked without any preamble or unnecessary fanfare. The fact that his ambush had been brushed off so easily was less impressive, but damaging a dragon with fire was no easy task.

Sakura confirmed Colbert's story, explaining that she was wandering the halls due to a bout of insomnia when she saw his attack from the other side of the courtyard. Afterwards, she had seen three people jump out of the vault onto the back of the dragon to fly away. She commented that it looked like the dragon was having trouble carrying everybody away. At that, Miss Longueville let out a cry of triumph.

"Aha! I believe I know where we can find these criminals." Miss Longueville exclaimed.

"You sound very confident, Miss Longueville." Kaita said, sneering at the secretary. Sakura had to admit that the man was at least consistent-he seemed to look down on everyone, student, staff, and fellow teachers alike.

"As well I should!" Miss Longueville replied. "The thieves were so selective. They took a healthy portion of our gold stores, the Lightning Cutters... but only a single reagent... the tears of a water spirit!"

"Excuse me," Sakura couldn't help but interrupt upon hearing the familiar name. "What are the Lightning Cutters?"

"Two legendary knives said to be so sharp that they can cut lightning." Miss Longueville explained absently, before returning to her point. "But the important thing is the theft of the reagent. It's only used in major healing spells, so all we need to do is find a powerful healer that an injured dragon would have been able to reach."

"Ah," Old Osmond smiled with sudden understanding. "I know who you mean. Very clever."

Seeing that everybody else looked puzzled, Miss Longueville explained. "The only powerful healer nearby who would be willing to treat such infamous criminals is the hermit of Mezan Lake."

"So all we have to do," Colbert said, excited, "is alert the Court to send a party out to Mezan Lake to arrest the criminals!"

"Absolutely not," Osmond said, shaking his head. "A theft of Academy property, by recent Academy students... we have to show that we can handle this kind of thing ourselves."

"I'll go." Louise spoke for the first time since the meeting began. "Kirche... she's not a bad person, really. If I talk to her I think I can get her to end this craziness."

"Very well," the headmaster said. "And the three of you will accompany her. Kaita, Colbert, and Longueville will provide Air, Fire and Earth... matching Tabitha, Kirche, and Fouquet."

The headmaster gave Louise a serious look. "I hope that you are able to convince them to surrender without a fight, but they cannot be allowed to escape. Once Sylphid is healed, our chances of ever finding them again are quite remote."

Sakura was a little worried about Louise's desire to repair her relationship with Kirche. In her experience, once you stuck a knife in somebody's back, telling them that you were willing to let bygones be bygones generally didn't go over too well. Still, if it took a face full of fire to convince Louise that Kirche wasn't coming back, Sakura had a feeling that Kirche would be all too happy to provide the fire. She hoped the damage wouldn't be anything that she couldn't fix.

ooOoo

The group were given the five fastest horses available from the Academy stables, and made good time through the woods. Sakura would have preferred to run ahead in the treetops and make sure no awkward secrets would be shared today, but she didn't know where Mezan Lake was located, and in any event it would be a bad idea to let the teachers see her outrunning their horses. She just hoped that if Kirche decided to say anything, it would be written off as the ravings of an insane fugitive.

The sun was just rising above the treetops when Miss Longueville brought the group to a halt. The headmaster's secretary dismounted and tied her horse to a tree by the side of the road before turning to address the group.

"The hermit lives just down the road-you can't miss his house once you're over that ridge. I'm going to circle around on some of the local game trails so that I can surprise them from behind." She explained. "Give me a few minutes' head start before you go. And make sure you don't provoke the hermit-he has a bit of a reputation."

With that, Miss Longueville disappeared into the woods. The rest of them dismounted and secured the horses, then took their formation while they waited. Calling their positioning a "formation" was a bit of a stretch. Kaita and Colbert, the two experienced mages, took point, while Sakura and Louise stayed behind them for protection.

When the designated time had elapsed the group made their way down the road. As it happened, they crested the ridge just as the criminals they were chasing were leaving the hermit's hut. The most obvious figure was Sylphid, curled up and resting next to the lake. Kirche's flaming red mane also stood out, as did Tabitha's bright blue hair. However, Sakura's attention was drawn to the form of the hermit. Dressed in a rather non-descript set of clothing, the man wouldn't stand out in a crowd except for his headband. Sakura couldn't make out the details due to the reflection of sunshine striking her eyes, but he was clearly wearing a standard issue forehead protector.

ooOoo 


	7. Chapter Six

AN: Thanks again for the reviews.

ooOoo

Louise felt her nervous anticipation rise as their group came into sight of the fugitives. She could see Kirche standing next to the large form of Osmond the Blade, both engaged in a conversation with the person she felt must be the hermit of the lake. Sylphid was curled up some distance away, and Tabitha was resting on her back. Somewhat incongruously, the blue-haired girl seemed to be deeply engrossed in a book.

It took Louise a second to realize that Sakura was nervous as well. That realization that made Louise even more worried, because as far as Louise had seen, her familiar simply did not get nervous. After the initial shock of her summoning, Sakura had been oddly formal with her, and once they had had a frank discussion about Sakura's abilities, she had been oddly informal; however, she had never shown any anxiety, no matter how Louise's temper had flared. All through the planning and execution of the prison break the girl had remained perfectly calm, and she had not shown any fear at the idea of participating in the capture of Fouquet.

After a moment, Louise noticed what Sakura must have seen immediately. The hermit was wearing a handband much like the one that her familiar had been wearing when she had been summoned. Along with Kirche, the man had turned to face their group when they had come into view, and the headband was plainly visible. Louise wasn't sure, but it looked like his had a different symbol etched into it than Sakura's did. She wondered what that could mean-if the man was from Sakura's world, and the headband indicated a higher rank, that would explain the girl's nervousness, but Louise really didn't have enough information to make an informed guess.

She was brought out of her thoughts when Professor Kaita cleared his throat somewhat theatrically, giving her a significant look as he did so. Face reddening, Louise recalled her part in this plan-she had a chance to talk Kirche into surrendering peacefully. If the Germanian refused to do so, Miss Longueville would strike from ambush, and together with Colbert and Kaita would be able to subdue the criminals. Louise and her companions were spread out along the hillside they were descending, making sure that no one spell from Kirche would be able to disable or disorient all of them at once.

"Kirche! Come back with us now!" Louise called out. "If you come in quietly we can do something to put all of this craziness behind us."

Louise's offer was genuine, as was the regret coloring her voice. She had never wanted to betray her schoolyard rival, and she believed that between the influence of her family and her own confession as to what truly happened, Kirche would be able to return to the academy without facing serious consequences. Of course, as Sakura had pointed out, if Kirche refused to come back there was no point in letting people know what had really happened on the night of the prison break. Louise had reluctantly agreed to hold off on confessing to the authorities until Kirche was safely back at the Academy.

"Ha! It is far too late to speak of such things, Zero!" Kirche replied. "In the end, a Valliere and a von Zerbst going to school together was never going to work out. Better that we get such things out in the open!"

Kirche certainly seemed to be in surprisingly good spirits for a wanted fugitive. She also seemed to be suffering no ill effects from their fight or from the gas Louise had unwittingly used to disable the girl. Louise supposed that the time between Sylphid's arrival at the healer and their own arrival had allowed for plenty of time for a medical procedure.

"You... you sound like you're enjoying yourself?" Louise said, surprised.

"Why shouldn't I? Doing what I want, taking what I want," Kirche said, squeezing the arm of the man standing next to her, his healthy face nearly unrecognizable as the prisoner Louise had seen a week ago. "My family can say what they want about me for now, but they'll welcome me back with open arms the next time our countries are at war."

"This is insane! Please, just come back with us." Louise said, trying desperately to convince her one time rival to return.

"Insane would be turning my back on you again and letting you stab me once more." Kirche snorted. "I only wish I could face you across the battlefield for myself one last time."

Louise did not get a chance to ask for an explanation as a masked and cloaked figure walked out of the woods, dusting off its hands as if it had just completed a difficult task. She could only stare at the figure, who she assumed must be the infamous Fouquet of the Crumbling Dirt.

"Well, that's taken care of." Fouquet said, shaking his head. "Sending a secretary to catch a criminal... how ridiculous. She's tied up back in the woods. I believe this completes our transaction?"

"Indeed." The healer replied, speaking for the first time. "One major healing in exchange for the knives and the... opportunity."

"Good." Fouquet replied. "I can't say I've enjoyed doing business with you, but you do good work. I hope I don't have to seek you out again."

With that, the cloaked figure turned to mount the waiting wind dragon, tugging Kirche along as it did so. The two had only taken a couple of steps when there was a shout from Colbert.

"Hey! We tried doing this the nice way, but we aren't going to let you go just like that!"

Suiting words to action, the professor summoned up a lance of fire, aiming for the dragon's wing in order to cut off their foe's escape. Before his attack could land, however, it was struck by a torrent of water. Louise was confused-none of the three thieves had a particularly strong water affinity, and to call up that much water so quickly was a high end talent. She was more confused when she saw that the water seemed to originate from a mask attached to the hermit's shoulder.

The steam that arose from the meeting of water and fire moved unnaturally, forming a thick fog between Louise and the fugitives. Beside her Professor Kaita summoned a gust of wind to drive off the fog, but it proved surprisingly resistant to his spell. By the time he had cleared the air, Sylphid was far off in the distance, too far away to be brought down by either of the professors.

"Calm down." The hermit said, chuckling in response to their visible frustration. "I'm your opponent now."

The man slowly turned his gaze along the line of his opponents, apparently not concerned at all about being outnumbered.

"Hmm, fire, wind, and... now this is new." He said, eyeing Colbert, Kaita, and Louise in turn.

The next thing Louise knew Sakura was standing in front of her, arms outstretched and holding onto the hermit's arms at the wrists. The hermit was holding a pair of broad bladed knives that were the size of short swords, and some sort of unnatural vortex of wind seemed to swirl around the outstretched blades. Louise could make out the knives quite clearly, as they were no more than five feet away from her. Then Sakura brought her foot up and lashed out in a kick to the hermit's chest, sending the man flying towards the lake, without letting go of his hands.

Louise winced, anticipating the shower of blood that would come pouring out of the man's severed arms, but was puzzled to see instead a pair of threads extending from the end of the arms to the hermit's shoulders. She was further surprised to see that the hermit was standing on the surface of the lake without any apparent effort, and that the man didn't seem particularly put out to be separated from his limbs. Indeed, the man looked almost contemplative as he examined Louise's familiar.

"Tsunade? I've wanted to test my strength against yours," the hermit said, before raising an eyebrow. "You know, I had heard that you conceal your true age beneath an illusion, but this seems to be taking things a little far."

"The only one living under an illusion is you, if you think sensei would break a sweat before she squashed you like a bug!" Sakura replied. She was still clearly exerting an effort to hold the two arms in place, although it wasn't clear to Louise how they could possibly be exerting any force.

"Sensei? I must have lost track of how long I've been on this world." The hermit almost seemed to be speaking to himself now.

"Sakura! What's going on?" Louise asked, the first of the Tristainians to recover from shock at the sudden burst of violence.

"Those threads..." Sakura said, almost speaking to herself, before turning to look at Louise. "There was a guy with powers like this who attacked the founder of my village. He took the strength of his enemies by eating their hearts... Louise, this fight is above your level."

Louise wasn't inclined to argue. If not for Sakura's quick action, she would have been cut to pieces in the initial attack. Much as she would have liked things to be otherwise, at this point she was just grateful that she had such a capable familiar. Before she could say anything, the hermit spoke up again.

"Only telling half the story, how typical for a leaf ninja," he said, shaking his head. "The thing is, when Kakuzu came back to our village, he was held in contempt for his failure. Eventually he decided he was tired of it and that the best way to keep anybody from Takigakure from saying bad things about him was to make sure there was nobody left in Takigakure to say anything."

The man paused, then spit into the lake. "You have to give him credit for being thorough. He killed every man, woman, and child in the village, took the strongest hearts, and split. I was the only survivor. This-"

The hermit rolled his eyes to indicate his forehead protector. "This is pretty much the last Takigakure hitaite you're going to see. I mastered all of his techniques, and I even developed a seal array that would let me track that bastard down for my revenge... and when I activated the seals to project my spirit to his location the damned Nibi came charging through my seal array."

"I don't know how you got here, little leaf," he continued, casting a hungry look at Sakura, "but I'm glad you did. These mage's hearts are all right, but it's been too long since I've been able to get ahold of a proper heart from back home."

At this point, things began to happen very quickly. First, Professor Colbert and Professor Kaita combined to launch some sort of wind-enhanced fire attack at their opponent. In response, a wall of water lifted out of the lake to absorb the attack, bursting into steam as it made contact. At almost the same time, one of the hands that Sakura was holding onto dropped its knife before moving its fingers in some pattern that made no sense to Louise. Sakura responded by throwing the arm away from her, but it had not gone very far before it was surrounded by an explosion of fire.

Louise was thrown back by the force of the explosion, landing on her back a good distance away. Sitting up, she saw that Sakura looked slightly singed, but was standing resolutely where she had been before. At that moment a beam of concentrated fire blasted through her familiar, but before Louise could begin to feel grief at what had happened Sakura disappeared, revealing a singed log where she had been standing.

Louise was just as happy not to be the focus of their enemy's attention, but she was a little worried that she wasn't able to see either the hermit or her familiar anywhere on the battlefield. On the lake where he had been standing a white masked figure was trading spells with Colbert and Kaita. The figure, the details of which were shrouded in a black cloak, was switching off between launching blasts of water at the professors and drawing water up from the lake to protect itself from Colbert's flame attacks. Meanwhile, Colbert was focusing on offense while Kaita was using various wind spells to protect the pair from the water that was sent their way. Closer to herself Louise could see the two knives that she could only assume were the Lightning Cutters, lying on the ground near one of the hermit's severed arms. A thread still trailed out of the end of the arm and disappeared underground.

Louise was looking for the other arm-she felt it was too much to hope for that it had been destroyed in the explosion-when the arm near her disappeared in a puff of smoke, replaced by another white-masked figure. Louise instinctively backed away from this new threat, her feet sinking into the mud created by all the water that was being thrown around. The figure turned to face her with what looked like amusement, before making a sharp gesture with its arm, generating a burst of air that knocked her off of her feet.

Louise felt the mud oozing down the back of her blouse and was struck by an incongrous burst of irritation at the damage being done by her wardrobe. She snapped out of it as the figure advanced on her and drew her wand with what she hoped was an impressive flourish.

"Stay back! You should know that you're challenging a Valliere!" Louise called out, more to bolster her own confidence than in any real hope that her adversary would back off.

The figure did indeed stop moving, although its body language still looked more amused than frightened. Standing in place, it spread its arms out wide, as if inviting Louise to take her best shot. As it did so, she felt the faint stirring of a breeze around her, and was reminded of watching Professor Kaita demonstrate the effectiveness of wind-based shields in the classroom. Forcing down her misgivings, and ignoring the lack of success that her professors were having against their adversary despite the use of some very high end spells, Louise did her best to protect herself.

"Fine, then, you're asking for it!" She called out, before beginning the chant for the fireball spell. Louise had never actually targeted a living thing with a spell before, not counting the familiar bonding, and she was curious if it would make any difference in the result.

As usual, Louise's spell failed to produce a fireball. Still, at the moment she released the spell, a great gale sprang into being between her and her opponent, as he apparently decided it was better to be safe than sorry when taking on a noble. Much to Louise's surprise, the wind had no effect on her magic-though she was targeting a living thing, rather than targeting a wall or the ground or some magical contraption, her magic did what it always did-her magic set out along the path she had chosen, and she was as shocked as anybody when the figure in front of her disappeared with a soft popping sound.

There was a pause in the combat, as the figure atop the lake and her professors both turned to stare at Louise in astonishment. The brief cease fire was broken when the remaining enemy directed a blast of water directly at her. Kaita deflected the brunt of the force, but Louise was still soaked. She and her professors were all standing in several inches of water by now.

Before Louise had a chance to try to repeat her success, another black clad figure popped out of the water next to the one that was already there. It opened its mouth, and a small spark flickering inside was the only warning it gave before unleashing a massive bolt of lightning into the ground near the Tristainians. Louise winced, anticipating the searing pain that would come when the water conducted the lightning into her body. When nothing of the sort happened, Louise realized that she was floating some inches above the water. Looking at the professors, she saw that Kaita was holding a levitation spell, while Colbert was finishing a spell chant of some type.

"Flame bomb." Colbert intoned solemnly. Louise feared that her professor was running short of willpower, as a small fireball left the tip of his wand. Even worse, it was aimed well over the heads of their enemies.

Louise's skepticism was silenced, however, as the tiny fireball set off an enormous explosion as it passed over their enemies. She briefly saw a bright white light where the cloaked figures had been standing before the blast wave knocked her for a loop. When the blast subsided Louise found herself hovering over the ground some twenty feet back from where she had been. Colbert and Kaita floated nearby.

"So, did we win?" Louise asked, her voice trembling.

Before either professor could respond, there was an explosion of dirt from where they had been standing before the explosion. Louise could recognize the pink-haired form of her familiar as she flew threw the air, maintaining a tight grip on what looked like the hermit they had been fighting this whole time. Sakura let out a war cry as she came crashing down, slamming the hermit's back across her knee with a vicious crack as they hit the ground. Hardly pausing to catch her breath, she snatched up the knife lying nearby on the ground and slammed it through her opponent's heart.

"Shannaro! That's what you get for attacking my friends, you bastard!" Sakura shouted triumphantly, before pausing as she realized her companions were staring at her in shock. She chuckled nervously, scratching the back of her neck.

"Is there something you forgot to tell us, Miss Haruno?" Colbert asked. Although his tone was neutral, Louise noticed that neither her nor Kaita had put away their wands.

ooOoo

"Heh, I guess I owe you an explanation." Sakura said, sheepishly. She was doing her best to sound contrite while she tried to think of a way out of this mess.

It had seemed like a simple plan: just avoid attracting notice at the Academy while they worked on sending her back home. Sakura could play the cute little medic easily enough, and while being a sixteen year old girl with pink hair could be annoying when she wanted to intimidate somebody, it did have the positive effect of forestalling any real investigation into the threat she represented. She hadn't figured on being drawn into a deathmatch with some interloper from her own universe.

The fight underground had been close. There was no doubt that her opponent had been more adept at earth manipulation than she, and she honestly felt pretty proud of herself for being able to maneuver him into arm's reach. Unfortunately there was no way she could have guaranteed a kill without removing the man from his home element, making it impossible for her to finish the fight underground. If she was being perfectly honest, once her blood was up and she was in the middle of a combat Sakura liked to end things with a flourish anyways.

The problem now, of course, was that the two professors had just seen their cute little medic stab a man through the heart. Sakura eyeballed the distance between them and their readiness, and reluctantly concluded that she couldn't be sure of killing both of them if she attacked. She wasn't really worried that they would be able to subdue her, but it only took one of them getting back to the Academy to end the research aimed at sending her back home. And that wasn't even getting into the problems she would have with Louise if she murdered two of the girl's professors.

Taking stock of her companions' emotional state, Sakura wasn't surprised to see shock reflected in Louise's face. The girl had just lived through her first experience with serious combat, and had probably just seen somebody killed for the first time. Professor Kaita was regarding her with open suspicion, while Professor Colbert looked... remmarkably understanding. Sakura thought for a moment-the explosive spell that had distracted her opponent at a key juncture had been surprisingly powerful, not something you would necessarily expect a teacher to produce in the heat of battle-she decided to test the waters before committing to a story.

"You see, where I come from... it's not a very nice place. I'm only sixteen," Sakura said, gesturing at herself to indicate how undeveloped her body was, "but I've been an active duty soldier for five years."

"And you didn't see fit to share this information with us before?" Kaita asked, obviously upset.

"I didn't want to be pressed into service." Sakura said, looking down as if she felt ashamed. "I felt I had earned some time away from the front lines."

At this point hiding her skills was no longer an option. Better then that they see her as a war weary veteran or traumatized child soldier than as a cheerful and competent assassin.

"If you had-" Kaita began speaking angrily, but was cut off by his fellow professor.

"At the Academy we don't judge people based on their past." Colbert said. "However, if you aren't honest with us about who you are, it's hard for us to trust you."

"I understand." Sakura said, doing her best to look open and honest while furiously considering how to put herself in the best possible light. "Let me tell you about the world where I come from."

"My village has been involved in three major wars in the last fifty years. During the 'peace' between wars there are constant low level skirmishes that take a toll on the soldiers on all sides." Sakura said, looking steadily at Colbert. "You have to understand, for us this is perfectly normal. My first toys were play weapons, and being selected for military training at the age of six was a major honor. When I graduated at eleven I was proud to serve my village."

"Of course, the war you learn about in the classroom is a different thing from the war you fight out in the field." Sakura said, and saw a flash of sympathy in Colbert's eyes. She kept the triumphant smile off of her face as she continued her story. "I still remember the first time I had to kill an enemy, the first time I killed a civilian..."

"Miss Haruno, that's enough, you don't need to-" Colbert said, obviously moved by her confession.

"No! No, he's right, this is something I should have told you before." Sakura insisted. "After a while I put in for medical training. I thought if I focused on healing people, I could help the war effort without doing anything morally wrong. Heh. I should have known that medics get sent to where the fighting is the worst."

Sakura shook her head, then focused off into the distance in a fair impersonation of the thousand-yard stare she had seen on some of the more battle-hardened jounin she treated. A little bit of real emotion leaked onto her face as she remembered her teammate's defection from the village, and the fear she had felt waiting to see if Naruto would make it back from his retrieval mission alive.

"Miss Haruno, whatever you were ordered to do, we don't-" Kaita began, apparently uninterested in hearing any details about Sakura's experience.

"Ordered? You think we needed orders?" Sakura interrupted, some real heat in her voice. "After six months of killing and dying over the same patch of land? If a prisoner needed to be patched up so we could get more information out of him, I was happy to help. If an interrogator needed to know where to cut to hurt without killing, I was right there with a knife. After a while it almost got to be routine."

"You know, when I was first summoned, I thought the enemy had captured me for interrogation and execution. But part of me was just glad it was over." Sakura said, shaking her head. "When I found out I was in a different world, I thought I could start over, be a real doctor. I thought maybe if I saved enough lives the spirits might have mercy on me on the next life. I guess it's just not meant to be."

"I know I wouldn't want somebody like me near a school." Sakura concluded. "I hope you'll let me collect my things from Louise's room before you send me on my way."

"Hey!" Louise exclaimed. "You're my familiar! You can't leave just like that."

"We'll let the Headmaster be the judge of that." Colbert said, putting his wand away, apparently satisfied that Sakura wasn't an immediate threat. "For right now, we need to focus on finding Miss Longueville."

Finding Miss Longueville took longer than anybody had expected. After searching the woods for some time without any success, Sakura finally backtracked along the trail to the point that the group had split up, retracing Miss Longueville's path through the woods, looking for any sign of a scuffle so that she could track Fouquet's path to Miss Longueville's location.

She retraced the trail into the clearing several times before she finally figured out what had happened. She couldn't help letting out a burst of laughter, which drew dirty looks from her companions.

"Miss Haruno, this is a serious matter." Kaita reprimanded her. "You need to focus on the search! Miss Longueville could be seriously injured and in need of medical attention."

"She's not injured." Sakura said, shaking her head.

"You've found her?" Kaita asked.

"No, but I can tell you where she was an hour ago," Sakura replied stifling a chuckle. "When she walked right past us and hopped on the back of a dragon."

ooOoo

It was a dispirited group that stood in the headmaster's office later that day. Colbert had just finished reporting on their ill-fated expedition, and Old Osmond's expression was grim.

"My secretary was the famous criminal Fouquet of the Crumbling Dirt?"

"Yes, sir." Colbert replied. "Once Miss Haruno pointed it out, the trail was easy enough to follow. She separated from us, waiting for us to meet with the hermit, and then walked right past us under disguise magic. She fooled all of us."

"What a shame." Osmond said, shaking his head. "Still, she was quite lovely..."

As the headmaster's voice trailed off, he seemed to be making vague groping gestures with his hands. Sakura felt that her position was precarious enough without adding an assault to the headmaster to her record, and the others seemed unsure of what to do. After a moment Osmond seemed to snap out of it, his gaze coming to rest on Sakura.

"And as to the matter of Miss Valliere's familiar, concealing such a thing is a serious matter," he said, before he shrugged. "But I suppose we can hardly expect a soldier in a foreign land to feel comfortable sharing all of her secrets, can we?"

Although the headmaster's tone was friendly, the look he was giving Sakura was entirely too sharp for her to feel completely comfortable. She had spent enough time around the Third Hokage to be wary of kindly old men in positions of power.

"Even with my background, I can still serve as a familiar, right?" Sakura asked.

"Of course. I suppose we should be glad that Miss Valliere summoned such a capable familiar." Osmond replied.

"That's a relief," Sakura said, "although now that I'm a civilian I would really rather just focus on healing people."

"I'm afraid that might not be possible." Colbert said. The bald professor was looking at her with an expression of open sympathy. "The runes on your hand are an exact match for the runes of the Gandalfr, the legendary familiar of the Founder. Gandalfr was legendary for his mastery of all weapons, and for the constant conflict that marked his life as a familiar. If fate has brought you to us as the next Gandalfr, I'm afraid that fate also seems likely to draw you into future battles."

"Surely battles won't seek me out while I'm with my master here at the Academy?" Sakura asked. She had been taught from a young age that luck was the residue of design, and that fate was a fiction used by the strong to maintain their position over the weak. She didn't believe that some runes on her hand could inevitably draw her into a life of conflict. Not that she had anything against a life of conflict, but she believed that she could pick and choose which conflicts she participated in.

"Perhaps not." Colbert said. "But to confirm my findings, I must ask you once more if you have noticed anything strange happen when you use a weapon."

"Hmm..." Sakura said, thinking. There was no real reason to hide the effects of the runes, and she may even be in a better position than before if they thought she was some kind of figure out of legend. There was certainly no need to show off the extent of her skill, but it seemed a small demonstration wouldn't hurt. She would just have to make sure that they didn't slack off in their research on sending her back home out of a desire to trap their legend in Tristain.

Sakura reached out to where the Lightning Cutters rested on the headmaster's desk and picked one up in her left hand. The runes on the back of her hand were in plain view as they lit up and the familiar rush of power ran through her. With a twist of chakra that was at the same time utterly simple and utterly foreign, a small vortex of air appeared around the blade as it became unnaturally sharp.

"This knife is designed to channel wind chakra so it can cut through anything." Sakura explained. "I have never been able to produce wind chakra, but now... it's easy."

"Most interesting." Osmond's eyes were alight with interest as he examined the blade. "I haven't seen the blades do that since the night I came into possession of them, some thirty years ago now."

The headmaster settled back into his chair, all eyes on him as he continued his tale.

"I was taking a leisurely stroll through the forest when I happened across a remarkable battle." Osmond said. "Two men were moving at tremendous speed and utilizing amazing techniques in an all out attempt to kill each other. In the final exchange, one of them put his fist all the way through the stomach of the other, but the dying man used those knives to cut off the head of his enemy."

"Once I knew it was safe to make my presence known, I rushed out to aid the surviving man. Unfortunately his wounds were beyond even my ability to heal. He gave me the knives and told me to find somebody who would put them to good use, as they were his legacy." The headmaster shook his head. "He died before I could even ask for his name. I don't suppose you've heard of these knives before? The name seemed somewhat unique."

"I'm afraid not." Sakura shook her head. "In my world there is a tale of a legendary swordsman of such skill and speed that he was able to cut lightning. So any time somebody comes up with an impressive cutting weapon or technique they call it Raikiri, lightning cutter."

The headmaster chuckled. "I shouldn't be surprised. I couldn't count the number of 'Staffs of Destruction' you'll find across Halkeginia."

He paused for a moment before continuing. "Still, it looks like we've found somebody who can put blades like this to use. Please keep them, and use them to protect Louise."

Sakura nodded, taking the other blade before sliding both into her belt. "I will, although I hope it won't be necessary."

"We all can only hope." The headmaster replied. "At some point we will speak further of the power of the runes, and of this 'chakra' that you use."

"But enough of these weighty topics!" Osmond suddenly exclaimed, bringing his hands down on his desk as if to physically cut off that line of conversation. "Miss Valliere, I have good news! You are to receive the title of Chevalier for your role in revealing the crimes of Kirche and Tabitha."

"What?" Louise asked, clearly shocked. "But I- that is- I didn't-"

"Ah, your modesty does you credit." Osmond said, chuckling. "Don't worry, you have a week to work on your acceptance speech."

ooOoo 


	8. Chapter Seven

Louise gasped for breath as she did her best to keep up with her familiar. Other than her pink hair, Louise's classmates would have trouble identifying her at the moment. She wore a simple outfit more suited to a commoner than a student at the prestigious Academy of Magic-Louise had abandoned her mantle and school uniform after the first day of this hellish training. In addition to the change of clothing, her normally immaculate hair was in disarray, and sweat was pouring freely down her face as she gasped for breath and counted down the steps until the end of their run.

She had learned early on that complaining about the training only earned her more training time. In a way, Sakura reminded Louise of her mother. While her time at the Academy had been in many ways an exercise in public humiliation and frustration, one of the small comforts she had taken from the experience was that she was free of her mother's ridiculous training regime. The fight a few days ago had revealed the danger of her lack of preparation, and Louise was determined to remedy that problem without complaining.

Still, she couldn't hold in her displeasure when they completed their lap of the Academy grounds and Sakura continued to run.

"Aren't we done with running for today?" Louise asked.

"Now, now, the student won't improve unless she increases her workload regularly." Sakura chided, sounding as if she was enjoying a leisurely walk through the countryside rather than the strenuous run she had been putting Louise through.

"This is insane! Nobody improves that fast." Louise complained.

"What was that? That sounded like the same person who told me she was willing to do 'whatever it takes' to become strong, but that must be my ears playing tricks on me." Sakura replied, still cheerful and carefree.

Louise grumbled, but kept running. The truth was that she had practically begged Sakura for this training. After the battle she had been in a state of complete shock for nearly a day. She still had nightmares about those knives, feet away from carving out her heart. She had no doubt in her mind that if not for Sakura's presence she would have been dead before she knew the battle had even started. The morning after the battle she had pleaded with Sakura to train her in her way of doing things. Louise still wanted to learn to control her magic, but it was clear to her that Sakura was skilled enough to at least hold her own in any kind of battle.

Other than her brush with mortality, that had been the other major shock from the battle. It was one thing to know, vaguely, that her familiar was dangerous. It was another thing entirely to see her move too fast for Louise to even follow with her eyes, and kick a grown man hard enough to separate his body from his arms.

Sakura had proven surprisingly willing to take Louise under her wing. Louise supposed that if her familiar really had been training since she was six then Louise was hardly going to be a threat to her any time soon. The first order of business had been to bring her "physical energy" up to par. Louise had always hated physical training, but now at least it had a purpose. It still wasn't something she enjoyed, but she was willing to put up with a lot if it meant she could do something other than make things explode.

Sakura brought the run to a halt after another quarter lap of the Academy. Louise walked around the clearing they had stopped in a couple of times to cool down before she settled down on the ground, unashamedly lying on her back to catch her breath. After a moment Sakura settled down beside her, and master and familiar enjoyed a peaceful moment of cloudwatching together.

"I can't believe they're going through with this Chevalier nonsense." Louise said, breaking the silence.

"Why's that?" Sakura asked, idly plucking blades of grass and letting them drift in the breeze. "Imagine how awful it would have been if Kirche and Tabitha had gotten away clean. Getting a warning out right under their noses, then dueling Kirche to a stand still... sounds pretty heroic to me."

"But it's all a lie!" Louise said with heat in her voice, although she kept her voice low. "Wouldn't it bother you at all, getting an award for leading your friends into a mistake and then betraying them?"

"Lie, truth, it doesn't really matter." Sakura said, still sounding disinterested. "This is politics."

"Of course the truth matters!" Louise exclaimed. "Part of being a noble is being a paragon of honor and honesty."

"Tch, you really have been brought up as the youngest daughter." Sakura said, sitting up to look Louise in the eyes. "Do you really think your family rose to prominence because of that fairy tale nonsense?"

"Whatever," Louise replied, long resigned to her inability to dent her familiar's cynicism. "Even besides the fact that it makes a mockery of everything I believe, it won't really matter. They'll just call me Chevalier Zero now."

Sakura looked surprised to hear Louise say such a thing, and she fixed Louise with a look that made her feel like a student who had just disappointed her teacher. Louise recognized this as a sign that she was about to receive a lecture on human nature, probably related to how awful people were. Still, Sakura's advice had proven useful in getting Guiche off her back, so Louise felt there was no harm in listening to what her familiar had to say.

"Louise, at the end of the day most of the students here want the Valliere to be successful. That's just how it is with powerful families." Sakura said. "If you just keep up the humble act and pretend like you're actually growing up, people will change how they look at you. They'll even start making up stories about how you've been causing explosions on purpose, or how the explosions mean you're actually some kind of super-mage struggling to control her powers."

"Just like that?" Louise asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Just like that. Your classmates grew up hearing tales of the Valliere family. Half the reason they pick on you is that you don't live up to the stories." Sakura replied. "Now you're being made a Chevalier, just like you'd expect from a Valliere. If you give them half a chance, they'll think this is the moment when the ugly duckling grew up to become a beautiful swan."

"If I wasn't so tired I'd swat you for being so disrespectful all the time." Louise said.

"You could try." Sakura smiled, before kipping up to her feet. "Just remember, the best lie is the one your audience wants to believe."

Sakura reached down to help Louise up to her feet, then set out at a brisk walk back towards the castle.

"Speaking of controlling your magic powers," Sakura said, glancing back over her shoulder at Louise. "I think it's about time for another experiment."

ooOoo

Louise was intrigued and a little apprehensive as she followed Sakura back to the castle. The last experiment her familiar had designed had been a rather spectacular failure, but there was no denying that she was capable of devising some unique ideas aimed at figuring out what was going wrong with Louise's spells.

This time, rather than take her to a meeting with an instructor, Sakura lead Louise to the stables. She called out for "Inu" and a puppy soon came bounding out to greet her.

Inu was absolutely adorable. He was no more than eight or nine weeks old, and while it was clear that he would eventually grow to be quite large, at the moment he was a mishmash of oversized paws and gangly legs supporting a small body. Inu's coat was made up of thick black fur, with a few spots of dark brown scattered over his body. When Louise caught a glimpse of his eyes she saw that they were a striking ice blue color.

Louise felt herself relax as she watched Sakura fuss over the puppy. She sometimes thought of her familiar as some kind of heartless killer, but at moments like these she was reminded that Sakura was also a young girl like herself. Inu bounded up to the ninja with great enthusiasm, panting with excitement while she scratched the back of his head, before running off across the courtyard to chase a bug or particularly interesting shadow for a moment until he lost interest and returned to Sakura's ministrations.

Once the puppy had tired himself out a bit, Sakura secured a rope around his neck and stood up, turning to address Louise. "One of the hunting dogs just had puppies a couple of months ago, they don't mind me borrowing one for a little while."

Louise followed Sakura as she walked with the dog out towards the forest. Louise was a little irritated that Sakura was expecting her to follow along while she walked her dog instead of just taking her to whatever experiment she wanted to perform, but it was hard to stay irritated in the presence of such a cute puppy. As they walked, Inu kept racing out to the end of the rope, eager to experience all of the sights and smells of the forest. Meanwhile, Sakura begain to explain the idea behind her latest experiment.

"I figure that instead of trying to perform a spell and force your magic to fit a particular element, we should focus on trying to feel what your magic is doing when you create your explosions." She explained. "You remember how I told you that I could sense your power when you perform a spell?"

Louise nodded in response.

"Well, you're the only person like that. Everybody else, all of their power just goes right into the spell. I can feel the effects of the spell, but not the magical power." Sakura continued. "More than that, your magic feels like something's missing. Like it's hungry for something."

"What could that mean?" Louise asked.

"I'm not sure." Sakura replied. "I thought it might be trying to form some kind of lightning magic, and looking for nearby lightning to draw on, but that didn't work out."

"No kidding." Louise shook her head ruefully, remembering the fallout from the last experiment.

"But then we had that fight, and your spell took out one of those wraith things just like that." Sakura said, snapping her fingers. "It could be that you just disrupted the chakra somehow, but it might be something else. Have you ever hit a person with a spell before?"

"No," Louise replied, shaking her head. "With all of the explosions, nobody really wanted me pointing my wand at them. The only time I ever put a spell on somebody was the Contract Servant spell with you, and that one is different."

"Ok, here we are." Sakura said, coming to a stop. Looking around, Louise saw that they were in a small clearing in the forest. Near the middle of the clearing was a post. It looked like somebody had taken a rather thick branch from one of the nearby trees, stripped the bark off, and then spent some time stabbing the wood for some reason. Louise idly wondered what her familiar had been up to as she watched Sakura walk into the middle of the clearing, tying Inu's rope to the post. Sakura returned to stand next to her master.

"All right," Sakura said, watching Louise expectantly. "Do your thing."

"What?" Louise asked, confused.

"Cast a spell at the dog." Sakura instructed.

"What!" Louise shouted. "Are you crazy?"

The dog in question was watching them eagerly, panting slightly and wagging his tail in anticipation of the new game they were playing.

"Look," Sakura explained, "we don't know what will happen when your spells hit a living creature. This way we can find out. Plus your magic might behave differently if it absorbs life force or something."

"Absolutely not!" Louise said, appalled. "I am not blowing up the puppy, and that's final."

ooOoo

Sakura looked at her student and suppressed a sigh, realizing that she had attempted to push Louise too far. For some reason she kept slipping into thinking of Louise as a trusted friend and respected colleague, and lost sight of what a sheltered young girl she truly was. Rather than a professionally conducted experiment regarding the girl's magic, it looked like this was going to turn into a lesson of a different sort.

"Remember when I agreed to teach you, when I said that you would learn to kill your heart and do what was necessary?" Sakura asked.

Louise nodded, but her body language did not soften at all.

"I wasn't just saying that to sound cool, you know." Sakura walked over to the dog, and the stupid thing walked right up to her for attention. It really made her nostalgic for Konoha-the Inuzaka dogs were far too smart to just wander off into the woods with some strange ninja. "Do you think all of your enemies are going to come in super-evil looking packages? When the time comes you need to be able to act without hesitation."

"If I need to defend myself I will," Louise replied, "but I'm not going to kill some innocent dog just to practice being a psychopath!"

"Fine," Sakura said, shrugging her shoulders as she drew a kunai. She savored the horrified expression that appeared on Louise's face for a moment before she sliced the rope free from the training log. Picking up the severed end of rope, she handed it to Louise. "You might as well spend the rest of the afternoon playing with the dog, then, if you're just going to waste my time."

Sakura turned and strode back towards the castle, not entirely displeased with this turn of events. Giving Louise time to bond with the dog would make the lesson all the more effective in the end. It had certainly proved effective in the Academy after she had spent a month taking care of her very own little rabbit.

"Maybe I will," Louise said as she followed along behind Sakura. The two walked back to the castle in silence. Sakura kept her expression carefully schooled to keep from showing her amusement as Louise repeatedly maneuvered to keep herself between her familiar and the puppy while they walked.

Before they reached the Academy they were ambushed by yet another pink-haired girl. Sakura reached for a kunai but relaxed when she saw Louise's face light up with recognition. Louise greeted the girl, who turned out to be her sister Cattleya, and cheerfully introduced her to the dog. She did not include Sakura in her introductions, which suited Sakura fine. She wasn't looking to make any new friends here, and she did have her own meeting to get to.

ooOoo

Sakura paused in front of the door to the headmaster's office and took a moment to compose herself. Although the fight with the ninja from her world had forced her to change her plans, her goal remained the same. Basically, she didn't want anybody to hassle her while she worked with Louise and waited for a chance to get back home. She didn't want them to fear her-there was a reason she didn't mention her training in infiltration and assassination-since that might lead them to try to separate her from Louise and the Academy, which would be annoying. Better for her if they thought of chakra techniques as somewhat useful parlor tricks, and of Sakura herself as a moderately talented and war-weary soldier whose abilities were enhanced by the runes on her hand.

Proper mindset in place, Sakura knocked on the door. She was a little surprised when Professor Colbert opened the door and ushered her inside. Apparently this meeting would involve only herself, the headmaster, and Colbert.

"Ah, Miss Haruno," the headmaster said, smiling at her, "how kind of you to indulge an old man's curiosity about this 'chakra' energy."

"Oh, it's no trouble," Sakura replied, before beginning her standard explanation of chakra. After she had finished explaining the basic idea that some people were able to use excess chakra to perform special techniques, she skipped the part where she usually demonstrated the basic three techniques taught in the academy. She hadn't seen anything in Halkeginia like the clone, transformation, or replacement technique, and she firmly believed that the best way to keep her trump cards a secret was not to tell anybody about them. Instead, she jumped straight to an explanation of elemental techniques.

"The five types of elemental chakra are earth, water, wind, fire, and lightning. Every person has one element that they are naturally aligned with. Some shinobi are fortunate enough to have two. Mine is earth." Sakura explained, then began forming a series of hand seals at a deliberate pace. "These hand seals are used to perform the technique, much like a spell invocation."

Finishing, Sakura spat a ball of mud onto the floor. She didn't mention that with practice a ninja could learn to perform simple techniques like this one without seals.

"Fascinating," Colbert commented, looking at the mud on the ground. "But you say these 'shinobi' are only able to use one or two elements-so everybody is either a dot or line class?"

"Not exactly," Sakura replied. Colbert's experience with the recent battle would put the lie to any claim that ninja were no threat to a trained mage. "Talented shinobi can learn to use other elements, but it's a long and tedious process. Generally you can create bigger techniques by using more chakra, rather than by combining elements. Some are able to use the technique I just showed you to create giant walls of mud. I'm more of a control type than a power type, though."

Forming another series of unnecessary hand seals, Sakura knelt down and touched her hand to the ball of mud. The mud flowed up onto her hand, forming into a reasonably detailed sculpture depicting Colbert in the process of casting a spell. After a moment the mud hardened, taking on the consistency of stone, and Sakura set it down on the headmaster's desk.

"Impressive." The headmaster commented, examining the statue for a moment before handing it to Colbert. The professor tapped the statue with his fingernail, listening thoughtfully.

"Interesting, this seems similar to the hardening spell that Earth mages use to reinforce buildings." Colbert commented.

"Oh, yes," Sakura replied, "usually I would use existing earth for my techniques, since it's less chakra intensive, but I could tell that everything in here has been hardened to the point that I can't use it."

The two older mages nodded in response to her comment, and spent a moment thinking over the apparent similarity between Halkeginian magic and this new school of 'chakra' techniques. After a moment Colbert frowned as a thought occurred to him.

"I thought you said you were trained as a healer? But how could that be if you can't use water techniques?" Colbert asked.

"For shinobi, elemental techniques and healing techniques are totally separate." Sakura replied. "Water users can create concealing mists, or water prisons, or various different water attacks. But healing is different."

Sakura took out one of the Raikiri and very carefully drew it across her upper arm, leaving a thin line of blood visible. She wiped off the blade on her pants leg before returning it to her waist, and then focused on her right hand. A green glow of healing chakra became visible, and she drew it across the wound on her arm. When she wiped the blood away with her thumb, only unbroken skin was left behind.

"Fascinating." Colbert commented. "Does it use the same energy as our magic?"

"I don't know," Sakura replied, shrugging. "I'm trying to train Louise up on using chakra, but she has a long way to go in physical fitness before I can even tell whether she can use chakra."

"Hmmm..." Old Osmond interjected, "I believe there is another way that we could test that idea."

The headmaster made his intentions clear by holding out a wand to Sakura. She took it from him, along with a phonetic translation of the simple earth spell "Transmutation." She had not yet had a chance to perform this test on her own, as the translation magic involved in the familiar bond allowed her to read normal Tristainian writing, but not the runic language used to record spell chants.

Sakura recited the spell, focusing internally to see if she could feel a pull on her mental or physical energies. She didn't feel anything in particular, and certainly nothing like the internal buildup that was supposed to accompany a successful spell. She thought she might have experienced a slight depletion of her mental energies, but small fluctuations in mental energies happened all the time, even without the use of any techniques.

When Sakura finished, she pointed her wand at the small statue she had made, not expecting anything to happen. And indeed, nothing happened. Both Osmond and Colbert sat back slightly in disappointment.

"Well, I suppose that was too much to hope for." Osmond commented. "Still, that does leave us with the question of what to do with you, Miss Haruno."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, mentally reviewing the exits to the room and her distance from the professors.

"If you could use magic, you would definitely be a noble. As it is, even though these 'chakra' spells are different from ours, you could still make a pretty strong argument for nobility." Osmond explained. "You could petition the Crown to be freed from the familiar bond and possibly earn your own place in society."

"Why would I want to do that?" Sakura asked. "I'm comfortable here, you're working to find a way back to my home world... I don't want to get involved in court politics or anything."

"Well, if you're happy, you're of course welcome to remain Miss Valliere's familiar." Osmond said.

"One thing I don't understand," Colbert said, "if the place you came from is so dangerous, why do you want to go back?"

"No matter how bad it is, it's still home, yo uknow? I don't want to just abandon my village and my friends." Sakura replied. "Also, my friends don't know where I am, I don't want them to get hurt trying to rescue me if they think I've been captured by one of our enemies. Even if I eventually decide not to go back, I want to at least be able to send them a message."

That pretty much ended the interview.

Sakura stopped by the kitchens for a midday meal and some conversation with Siesta. The maid had remained friendly to Sakura throughout her time at the Academy, and for some reason Sakura just felt comfortable around her.

After that it was time to track down her master for their afternoon exercises. She eventually found Louise outside in a clearing, cycling through the basic spells for air, earth, fire, and water. The repeated explosions and broad assortment of craters dotting the clearing testified to her lack of success.

"The dog is gone and now you're blasting the ground? At least you could have let me watch and see what happened." Sakura asked, cheerfully.

Louise glared at her in response. "That's not funny. Cattleya is taking care of Inu, she's good with animals."

Louise took Sakura's silence as interest in her sister, and launched into a description of Cattleya's kind and supportive nature and her way with animals. After Louise finished describing the veritable menagerie that Cattleya took care of at home she finally wound down and Sakura was able to ask a question.

"Ne, Louise, did Cattleya's magic take a while to settle down? Maybe she could help us figure out what's going on with your magic." Sakura asked.

"No." Louise glared at Sakura. "Don't you think I would have thought of that? Cattleya's a brilliant mage. The only reason she isn't at least a triangle class by now is that she has a wasting disease that prevents her from doing very much magic at all. She couldn't even perform the familiar summoning ritual."

"I see," Sakura said, nodding. "She's too weak to summon a proper familiar, so she befriends a bunch of animals to try to fill the void in her life left by her failure. That's kind of sad actually."

"It's not like that!" Louise shouted. "She takes care of animals because she's a good person. Some people are just nice, you know."

"Tsch, people only seem nice when you haven't figured out their angle." Sakura replied. "Those are the people you have to be most careful about."

ooOoo

Sakura usually occupied her time between finishing her morning chores and waking Louise by reviewing her master's school books. She intended to return to Konoha with a few wands, some basic spells, and a thorough understanding of the theory of Halkeginian magic.

Konoha, like all of the hidden villages, was constantly working to increase the percentage of its citizens who could be effective ninja. Unfortunately, most people were not born with the ability to manipulate chakra, and of those who were, few were able to develop the mental and physical energy required to be useful in combat. Sakura knew that she had been pretty close to the cutoff point, but thanks to her excellent chakra control she was able to graduate from the Academy.

If even a small percentage of the Academy washouts could be taught enough magic to be useful, Konoha could significantly increase its yield rate. Over time, that would shift the balance of power in the leaf's favor. Of course, real power among the hidden villages usually came down to contests between the very best ninja, as the gulf between an S-class nin and an A-class nin could be as broad as the gap between a jounin and a genin.

Even there, Sakura felt that magic could help, if anybody in Konoha was able to master both magic and chakra use. A B-rank shinobi who was also a triangle class mage was not somebody that Sakura would ever want to face in a fight.

The morning after the unfortunate incident with the puppy, she was reading about the principles of elemental combination for line class spells when she felt a buzzing sensation in her hand that indicated that it was time to wake Louise. Ninja out in the field couldn't use alarm clocks, for obvious reasons, but still needed to wake up on time. Some clever seal master had produced a wrist mounted contraption powered by the user's chakra that would deliver a small jolt of raiton energy at a pre-set time. Sakura actually didn't really need it to wake up on time, as she had trained herself to sleep for a pre-determined number of hours, but she found it useful to keep her from getting lost in her reading and losing track of time.

Waking Louise proved as challenging as always, but Sakura was used to her master's ways by now and soon had her up and about. Despite the awkwardness occasioned by the previous day's aborted experiment, they still had their morning training to do.

Sakura set a pace for their jog that was slightly faster than they had run the day before. She hadn't said anything to Louise, but she was pleasantly surprised by the girl's progress so far. She suspected that mages were able to use their magic to speed healing somehow, as Louise was improving faster than anybody without access to chakra should be able to.

They were a quarter of the way through their run, and Sakura was enjoying the beauty of the forest in the light of the rising sun, when Louise went pelting past her at a dead sprint. Sakura easily increased her pace to maintain her position a few feet behind her master, and was about to glance back to see what had caused such a fuss when a mournful howl from behind her rendered it unnecessary.

Sakura had read about the dire wolves that lurked in the forest of Tristain, fierce predators made all the more dangerous by their habit of hunting in packs. Of course, they were supposed to be nocturnal predators. Apparently she and Louise had run into the wolf equivalent of night owls, staying up into the daylight.

Sakura considered her options for a moment as she ran. On the one hand, she could take to the trees and let Louise deal with the situation. It would be good training, and she could probably prevent anything unfortunate from happening. Unfortunately the trust between them had recently been strained by the argument the previous day, and she didn't want to add to that strain by apparently abandoning Louise in the middle of the woods. She could also attack the wolves, but that risked having one slip around her to reach her relatively fragile master. Sakura instead settled in close behind Louise, ready to snatch her up and leap away from danger should it prove necessary.

They had been rushing away from the wolves for almost a minute when Louise led them into a large clearing. Reaching the middle of the clearing, Sakura grabbed her master's arm and brought them to a halt, turning to face the oncoming wolves. She reached for a kunai with a smile. Out here in the open the wolves would have no chance.

Sakura's plan of attack was interrupted when a bolt of destruction descended upon the wolves with a terrifying war cry. The blur resolved itself into a gryphon as it crashed into the pack, striking down two wolves with its claws and setting upon another with its beak. Each wolf was one hundred pounds of angry canine, but they may as well have been little lap dogs for all the challenge they presented to the gryphon.

As the gryphon struck, the man who had been riding on its back leapt off, planting his feet into the chest of another wolf with a sickening crack to halt his momentum before rebounding to land lightly on his feet. He gestured with the sword in his hand and the last two wolves were blown away, crashing into the trees on the edge of the clearing and falling limply to the ground. The whole battle lasted no more than a handful of seconds.

The man looked over at Sakura and as their eyes met she felt a slight spark of recognition, of one predator acknowledging another. After a brief moment the man relaxed, and Sakura fell out of battle evaluation mode into personal evaluation mode. Their savior certainly cut a fine figure with his cloak flapping in the breeze. His wizard's hat and goatee framed his face and accentuated his lean, hawklike features. His build was similarly long and lean, and as he walked across the clearing to introduce himself he moved with the grace of a natural athlete. Sakura fought down the urge to lick her lips in anticipation.

One of the many differences Sakura had noticed between the society of Tristain and her home was the prevailing attitude towards physical intimacy. In Konoha it was understood that an active duty ninja had no guarantee of reaching the age of twenty-one, or eighteen, or really of living past tomorrow. Accordingly, it was understood that ninja would try to squeeze as much enjoyment out of life as they could. The nobility of Tristain, on the other hand, were much closer in attitude to the civilians of Konoha. Marriages were commonly used to build political alliance, and sexual purity was part of the bargain.

So while the students at the Academy were around Sakura's own age, and some of them were very easy on the eyes, she never seriously considered pursuing any of them. It would be too much like a fling with a civilian-she'd have to do all the work, and their tears would really ruin the mood.

This man, though, was a little older and looked a little wiser in the ways of the world. Sakura quickly decided that she could spare some time from training for a little rest and relaxation while she waited for a way back home to open up. She made sure that her body language indicated her interest, shifting her stance slightly, tilting her head as if listening attentively, and favoring him with a slight smile. She was pleased when the man stopped in front of her, swept off his hat and sketched a bow, though she was nonplussed when he looked right past her to address her master.

"Louise, please forgive me from dropping in so suddenly," he said, "but I could not simply fly by when I saw you were being attacked."

"I- er- ack," Louise stammered, before seeming to become aware of her dishevelled state and hurriedly trying to arrange her hair into some kind of order. "You shouldn't be seeing me like this! You are supposed to send word ahead, so I can prepare-"

"Please, don't worry," he interrupted, favoring her with a warm smile, "I'm happy to see that you're taking your training seriously, even after achieving such a prestigious position."

Louise blushed, but did not have anything to say in reply. The silence lingered for a moment before Sakura cleared her throat. The man seemed to start in surprise, before turning to address her.

"My apologies, I do not believe we have been introduced." He said. "I thought you were Louise's sister, but I see now that you don't appear to be related."

"This is my familiar, Sakura." Louise said, before Sakura could say anything.

"A human familiar?" He replied, looking Sakura over with surprise. "I never would have guessed."

With that, he seemed to dismiss her and turned back to Louise. Sakura kept her face schooled into an expression of polite interest, but she was surprised. It was rare for a man to completely ignore her interest-of course, in Konoha, it was general known to be unwise to ignore a kunoichi's advances. Here, though, she would be apparently be starting from scratch, considering that he had barely acknowledged her at all. She could hardly keep from breaking into an honest grin-it would be nice to have a worthwhile challenge.

Louise spoke before he could say anything, completing the introduction as she had been trained in countless etiquette lessons. "Sakura, Jean-Jacques Francis de Wardes, captain of the Royal Griffin Knights, and my fiancee."

ooOoo 


End file.
